Real life hurts
by TigressPL
Summary: Learning to live in the real world was... and is hard for Bolt. But what happens when his world isn't happily-ever-after, as everybody thought? Will a good dose of humor be enough to get through difficulties?
1. Normal life's hardships

**Author's notes**:

If you wish to know something more about the story, you're most welcome to visit my profile - there you can find tons of useful, additional informations about the story.

Enjoy reading the story ;)

* * *

**Real life hurts**

by TigressPL

**Chapter 1: Everyday life's**** difficulties**

Sun of late August shone brightly, its rays beaming into the house. Gleeful sparks of light danced on a vase with flowers and some glasses, standing on a table in the living room. No one was there to watch and admire their beauty though. The only living creature in the room, a small black cat lying under a windowsill, was focused on her own thoughts...

'_It's perfect. Sun shining brightly, no sounds breaking the peaceful, lazy atmosphere… Can a cat ask for more? Especially wonderful: no sign of any dog being anywhere nearby. Perfect…'_

Bark.

'_It's nothing. Stay cool, rest, Mittens… It will pass, he will go away soon…'_

Bark.

'_Oh, God damn it, would somebody shut that dog up?'_

"Mittens!" sudden sound right next to her ear made her jump up from surprise, causing a painful impact with a windowsill.

'_That's it for sleeping in this place, never again. Now, on to the culprit…'_

"What the hell is so important to interrupt my late afternoon nap, Bolt?" she asked in a weary voice, yawning and stretching her back.

"Penny's disappeared! She is not in the house, she's nowhere around… She must have been kidnapped!"

Mittens' jaw dropped.

"Before I answer this, please, confirm one thing Bolt. You got to know the difference between stage and real life like what, a month ago?"

"Six weeks, to be precise. But this is leading us nowhere, now get ready, we have to hurry to save her!"

"Bolt," she sighed. "I don't know what pushed you back into insanity, but I'm already fed up with it. Go and search for her at your own if you like, I don't give a damn." She laid back and closed her eyes.

"Told ya," Bolt said, seemingly without any sense to it. Mittens glanced at him to assure it's another symptom of his mental illness, but instead she saw Rhino, rolling from behind an armchair.

"I'll never doubt your acting talents again, Bolt!" the chubby hamster exclaimed with admiration. "She totally fell for it!"

With a sarcastic parody of a laughter she closed her eyes again and added, "Why don't you try your stupid jokes elsewhere? I'm in no mood for such games."

The dog snorted and looked at his rodent companion. They uttered only one word, almost simultaneously. "Females…"

Mittens sighed in response. "Males," she muttered under her breath.

* * *

"Fully awesome!" Rhino exclaimed when they got out of the cat's hearing range. "Let's do it again!"

"No," Bolt firmly stated. "Granted, it was great, but some borders should never be crossed."

"Okay… what do we do now then?"

"I don't know, it's still uncommon for Penny to disappear for such a long time. I wonder where she could go…"

"Well, let's find out."

"Rhino… seriously, what chance do we stand to find her? She could be anywhere… Plus, it's worthless, she'll be back today one way or another."

"I didn't really mean going after her… Come, there is another lesson that you need to master," he gestured towards the stairs. Bolt took his ball into mouth – granted, Rhino could go up by himself, but it would last much longer. Prepared that way, they quickly reached first floor.

It was late August, which meant that almost seven weeks have passed since Bolt had escaped Sovereign Entertainment, trying to save his beloved person. During his journey back, he learned much about real world from Mittens – she showed him what normal dogs do, how do they behave… The lessons didn't end after saving Penny, though. Even now there were still many things Bolt had to learn about the surrounding world. Granted, he was no longer lectured daily by Mittens, but every now and then she or Rhino would have to explain something new to him… such as now.

They came into Penny's room. It was sparsely furnished – small bedside table, big bed and a little cupboard on the other side of it, plus a desk in the corner was all she needed in her private space. Walls were covered with a pink-and-violet stripes wallpaper, one of them barely visible from beneath a hundred photos of the inseparable duo. The best one, showing whole 'family' together on a sofa wasn't there though – it stood on the table, framed appropriately.

Rhino rolled over to the desk and asked Bolt to help him up. Having got there, he immediately found the thing he was looking for and pushed it down. Bolt sprang aside to dodge the falling object, so it landed on the floor with a thud, then another thump accompanied Rhino's purposeful fall. Bolt examined the item, finding it was some kinda book. He knew what do people use them for and understood they are of no use for animals. When reading one word is hard thing to do, an effort needed to get through one page would be unimaginable. Save the fact that none of them would probably understand more than one in a hundred… or even a thousand words. Taking that into consideration, he was even more curious about how the rodent was going to use it.

While Bolt was pondering over the book, Rhino turned the entrance piece of his ball and got out of it, then trotted over to Bolt.

"This," he said, pointing to the book, "contains various information about what and when is Penny going to do."

"Why would she write something like that? It could fall into the wrong hands and cause some disaster…"

"Yeah… It seems people have too short memory to remember about some things."

Rhino opened the book and showed Bolt one of the pages , smirking knowingly. The dog examined it, but found nothing understandable – it was full of various words he couldn't comprehend.

"I see nothing we could use here" he admitted. "How is _this_ gonna help us find Penny?"

To his amazement Rhino asked him to look at an electronic clock, standing atop the bedside table. It read "19:04" and, below, " Thu 21 Aug".

"Another cryptic human words, this is leading us nowhere," Bolt snorted.

"No, actually, this gives us the answer" Rhino responded, reading something from the book. "Here, let me explain. The second part is like… a name, that people give to the current day. I don't know why, but it is certain – the letters are different every day and they change only overnight. Now, compare those characters with these written here," he pointed to some letters in the book. Indeed, incomprehensible as they were, the signs looked identically. They seemed to be some sort of a title.

"Rebecca's birthday party," Bolt read the words slowly, stammering all the time. "Boy, I hate reading human writing. I just hope it is more intelligible to you than to me, 'cause I don't have a clue about what does it mean."

"It just so happens that I do. It is one of the words I learned from watching the Magic Box… When there is party, many people gather, they talk much, eat and drink… And sometimes have some fun, but usually it's the straightest way to get bored to death."

"Well, it's not like we have better situation here."

"Yeah," Rhino admitted. "Are you suggesting what I think you are?"

"Searching for Penny to save both her and us from boredom? Yup, that's what I'm on… But our intel is incomplete, we have to decipher the rest of this code… Are you familiar with 'birthday'?"

Rhino thought for a minute."Nope, nothing comes to my mind. Our last chance is 'Rebecca's'. I have no idea what could this one mean too, though. Sorry."

"Wait a second… Rebecca's, Rebecca's… I heard it somewhere, I just can't put my paw on this…" He trailed off for a while, then suddenly exclaimed "I know! During several occasions, Penny would go with me to visit her friend, Rebecca - maybe Rebecca's… She has a Labrador named Tom. But the point is, it's not far away from here. Wanna join me?"

"Are you kidding? Why are we still here?"

* * *

Penny's family's house was located quite far to the north from the center of Hollywood, in the least built-up area. Houses stood very sparsely there, making it look more like a village than suburbs of Hollywood. However, the area wasn't vast, covering less than four square kilometers.

While Bolt and Rhino were examining Penny's diary, two kilometers east from them, slowly setting sun was illuminating many houses, crammed along an empty street. One of them, a brown-painted bungalow with a small garden surrounded by a hedge, was currently holding a teenager's birthday party. Under dying rays of the sun, slowly beginning to set, a bunch of adolescents was running in the garden. Granted, they all thought of themselves as of 'almost adult', mature etc, but when it came to it, most of them still found open-air activities the best way of spending free time. Only a clique of party guests decided to stay inside, preferring talking to running around. Currently there were two girls and three boys inside, which, of course, meant two separate groups. It just so happened that one of the girls was Penny, while the other – party's host, Rebecca.

"Now, how long has it been since you quitted that show, Pen? A month?" shorter of the girls asked.

"One and a half, why?"

"I was just wondering… Don't you miss all that? You know, constant action, several people catering for you…"

"…most exhausting job I could imagine and agent, who wouldn't listen to anything I said? Actually… I do. I don't think I would quit in the first place if it ever was my decision to make. You know, my mum became highly overprotective after that accident in the studio."

"Accident? You're saying it like it was nothing, while I heard you could have got killed in the process!"

"I had Bolt on my side, I never doubted he'll guide me out of there… Plus, it _was_ an accident – come on, how often does something like that happen?"

"So… are you planning to take the job back?"

"It would be hard now, you know – they already found a new actress, plus I'd have to convince mum."

"Right…"

* * *

"I believe it's here," Bolt said, stopping beside a high hedge.

"Hmm," Rhino murmured, examining the obstacle. "It seems to have a highest level of protection. No way in without a human companion… I think you should superbark this leafy wall so that we can pass it."

"Rhino, you know I don't have such powers… Best thing I could achieve that way would be scaring some spiders to death. Even though… it doesn't look like impassable for me. See?" he put his paw deep into the hedge.

"You don't know what hell awaits you on the other side… And I won't be able to assist you."

"Well then… guard the entrance. I'll get inside and see if I can let you in somehow."

Rhino agreed, so Bolt paced back a few steps and suddenly broke into a fast run, jumping up in the last moment. Thanks to his weight he got through the hedge quite easily and painlessly. He quickly inspected his new surroundings. View of a bunch of kids running around the garden confirmed he was in the right place, although he couldn't spot Penny anywhere. He only caught sight of one familiar being, namely Tom, Rebecca's black Labrador.

That's also when Tom noticed a trespasser. He dashed in his direction, barking and looking daggers at him.

"Get outta here, you bloody stray, before I make you-!" he suddenly recognized the newcomer and stopped dead in his tracks. "Bolt?"

"Evenin', Tom," the dog in question greeted.

"What's wrong with you? Have you gone nuts to break onto my terrain without a reason? It's a manner of stray dogs, not civilized ones like you and me."

"Not without a reason, Tom. I'm here to accompany my person."

"If you came with her in the first place, I would let you in immediately. You didn't, so you're not welcome here. Now, don't make me repeat the threat…"

"My person's somewhere here and I won't yield-"

"I don't care a fig about your reasoning. You're trespassing and you are to leave!"

"Was this a challenge?"

* * *

Penny and Rebecca were sitting inside, discussing various subjects and unwittingly watching their colleagues run in what they identified as a game of 'blind man's bluff'. The outer scene caught their conscious attention immediately though, when some of the teenagers screamed, pointing at something invisible from inside the house. When all the teenagers huddled, the girls stormed out to see what's going on.

First, they heard unrecognizable growling, then they saw two blurred shapes of animals, rolling on the ground. it hasn't been a second later that they distinguished the fighting figures as their dogs.

"Bolt! Tom!" they screamed in unison.

Hearing his person's command – or maybe just recognizing the voice – one of the struggling dogs, an albino German Shepherd, quickly gained an upper hand. He caught his opponent by the scruff of his neck and slammed him to the ground. Having done this, he quickly came over to his person, expressing his pride of winning and mirth of seeing her through a rapid wagging of his tale. But she didn't share his joy, looking concerned at the other girl, who darted towards her lying dog and examined his body in search of potential wounds.

"Is… is he okay?' Penny finally asked.

"Yes, thankfully, he is. I do not blame you, Penny, I don't know why the hell did that happen, but you can't leave Bolt here… I suggest you better take him home and make sure that he won't escape next time."

"But…" Penny was speechless. The best part of the party was about to begin, with a huge bonfire, with singing and dancing… How could she do it to her? But she was right, she couldn't just leave Bolt here.

With a heavy sigh she got up from the ground and left through the garden gate. She didn't bother to say goodbye to anyone, knowing perfectly well they wouldn't probably answer after what just happened. Instead, she simply walked back towards her home with a sullen expression on her face. She didn't care if Bolt followed her, angry with him for making her leave the party.

* * *

Mittens awoke without any specific reason. She got up from her sleeping position, but couldn't believe she stopped dreaming. The house was thoroughly quiet, no sign of life could be heard or seen. It wouldn't probably be anything new for someone else, but after six weeks spent together with Bolt and Rhino she didn't believe in silence existing wherever near to this duo. Judging by the fading light, it was already growing late, so their absence was eerie.

As if on cue, she heard the front door click, then slam. Curious, she went in that direction. She saw Penny, somewhat angry, headed into the kitchen from the front door. And where Penny was… She immediately conjectured that the duo she was looking for had to be outside, so she went out through the pet door. Just as she thought, they were sitting on the terrace.

"Hey, Bolt," he glanced at her for a short while, but it was enough for her to notice something was clearly wrong. "What happened? You look as if you have lost something."

"No," he said quietly, "it's just…" He sighed. "I did something wrong, something that outraged Penny. Worst thing is, I don't know what, I just came to see her and she acted like…"

"Nah, it was probably nothing, maybe she just has a bad day."

When he didn't respond, blank expression on his face, she demanded his attention by standing right before him.

"Listen… There's a saying: Shi… bad things happen. You can't do anything about this, you have to let it pass."

"But… if she won't forgive me?"

"She will, you'll see. Both of you just need to drag your minds from this matter for the time being. By the end of the evening, she'll probably by as cheery as always."

"If you say so…" he didn't smile, but seemed kinda convinced. "What shall we do then?"

"…five…" murmured Rhino, "six… seven!" He let out an exclamation of joy. "It's been seven days since last episode of 'Bolt', and it was a replay, so today it's time for a new piece of pure awesomeness! And I think it's about time!"

"Weren't you fed up with 'Bolt' after the aliens appeared?" Mittens asked, more of sarcastic attitude then curiosity though.

"Nah… Granted, they're totally unrealistic, but it's Bolt we're talking about! He'll blot them out in no time."

They went to the living room, Mittens and Rhino still arguing. Having sat at the sofa, Rhino found the remote and turned the TV on.

* * *

Penny's mom, Beatrix, was preparing a supper for herself when she heard the front door being opened, then slammed shut. She looked at the clock, as Penny planned to come back from the party at 9 earliest and it hasn't even been 8. But it was her, undoubtedly. As if she wanted to confirm this, her daughter stormed through the living room and was about to go upstairs when Beatrix called, "What's up, sweetie? The party ended sooner than planned?"

Penny looked as if she was about to explode, but she settled down and managed to answer calmly, "No. Bolt decided to pay me a little visit and almost tore Rebecca's dog apart."

Beatrix sighed, "I'm sorry honey. But how could Bolt know…?"

"I don't care, he made me leave right before the best part of the party. And what will I tell Rebecca?" she sighed. "I'm tired, mum, I'm going to sleep."

"Okay. Sleep well, it always helps with problems."

* * *

"Ah, professor. It's always such a pleasure to see you. Looking at you, I see myriads of plans formerly impossible to achieve, now becoming fully realistic thanks to your help."

"I'm also thankful for every possibility of looking at you, doctor. I'm learning to appreciate everything else in a flash."

"Still in mood to talk back, aren't you? Good, good, but remember, professor. I have an upper hand in our little… conflict."

Professor sighed heavily. "You're right. But I've done everything you asked for so far-"

"So far, professor," Calico cut in, "so far. Your next appointment won't be too hard though. You see, I simply admire the powers you implemented in that damned canine. Now, I want you to repeat the procedure, with two felines this time."

"It would be easier if you hadn't blown up my laboratory."

"Oh, I'm sure it won't stop you, professor. Not when I can forcefully implement few small pieces of lead into a certain head."

"You're a monster, doctor," another weary sigh could be heard. "But I am forced to cooperate. I will need some barely available chemicals. _Behemothea Amonamarthian, Korpiklan Ensiferumel, _some _Equilib_. Oh, and at least three hundred grams of plutonium."

"Have you noted it?" Calico asked.

"Yes sir," a new voice answered.

"Gorgeous! We will meet again soon, professor, as fast as I will be able to collect all the indispensible ingredients. For the time being, I suggest you better make yourself comfortable in this cell, as you are going to spend some time here."

"Awesome!" Rhino commented immediately after a 'to be continued' information appeared on the screen. "Genetically modified cats… but Bolt won't let that happen, he'll surely cut off the electricity! Or-"

"Rhino…" Mittens cut in. "Bolt is in the space, how can he possibly affect anything that's happening on Earth?"

"He is fully _awesome_. He'll find a way, you'll see."

They kept quarreling, but Bolt didn't pay attention, focused on what the nearest future was holding for him.

* * *

By the time they ended watching TV it was already dark, so they entered Penny's room quietly, sure that she was sleeping already. Mittens and Rhino then proceeded to get onto the bed and they fell asleep almost immediately. Bolt stayed behind. He was fighting his own mind, trying to convince himself to do the thing he never needed invitation for and lay down beside his person. After a long while he finally decided and put both front legs on the bed. That's when he met Penny's stare – cold, discouraging, stern look. He endured it for a while, but seeing that nothing more is coming he made the last step, leaping onto the bed. He was about to settle down in his favorite spot when unexpected thrust made him collapse from the bed. The only thing he saw while falling were Penny's outstretched arms. Strength of the shove made him hit the bedside table with his head. He didn't feel the impact though. The act of violence from Penny caused an inner pain, way worse than any bodily injury he could get. He shakily stood up and silently left the room, completely broken down.

A sudden thud immediately made Mittens wake up as she was very susceptible to any sounds in the early phase of sleep. She looked around semi-consciously and spotted Penny in a position indicating that she just pushed something… Then she saw Bolt coming out through the door – and judging by the heartbroken pose he had, she guessed the rest.

When she found him, he was sitting on the terrace, looking at the moon with water-filled eyes. She tried to move towards him as quietly as she could… Effortlessly.

"What if I'm not good enough for her?" his tone made her heart skip a bit from sorrow.

"Of course you are… Come on, she's your person, you're her dog, there's nothing better than that! She'll forgive you in no time."

"But… What if I won't be able to forgive myself?"

That did it. That short sentence expelled whole her rebellious, provocatively sarcastic edging, leaving only a close friend… One of the only two friends he had.

"Shhh…" she tried to comfort him. "You need to rest now, time solves all problems."

She led him back into the house, made him jump onto the couch and laid beside him, leaning her head on his neck.

"Now," she whispered into his ear. "Close your eyes, drift away and let the beneficial power of time heal your wounds… Everything will be better when you wake up. I promise."

"Mittens…" he whispered so quietly that she barely heard him. "Thank you… you're one in a million."

"Yeah," she replied even quieter, so that he never heard her. " You too."


	2. Time solves all problems

**Author's notes**:

If you wish to know something more about the story, you're most welcome to visit my profile - there you can find tons of useful, additional informations about the story.

In the meantime, enjoy reading the story ;)

* * *

**Real life hurts**

by TigressPL

**Chapter 2: Time solves all problems  
**

She didn't have to open her eyes to know where she was. In the middle of nowhere. Literally. She was surrounded by undisturbed void. It wasn't so bad, especially compared to what happened next. Because suddenly the non-existent surrounding gained material form. First and most perceptible evidence was something that appeared right below her, something cold and very uncomfortable.

For a while she continued to pretend nothing abnormal had happened, but she had to give up. Whatever it was, the thing she laid on wasn't going to dissipate. Plus, every second of lying on that freezing cold matter was a torture for her. She opened her eyes and stood up with a heavy sigh. Looking about the place she found herself in, she had to admit she's never been in odder one. If not for the gravity, she would have no idea, which of the perfectly flat, white surfaces surrounding her should be called a floor and which a ceiling. Furthermore, this 'room' had no windows, no doors and no artificial source of light; even though she could see everything clearly. And being able to see everything when there was nothing to see meant seeing nothing and was completely inconsistent with the first statement. She sighed.

'_It's not for a cat's mind to deliberate over such paradoxes… But where the hell am I? I wish this »room« wasn't so spacious and empty… I wish somebody was here, even someone as annoying as Bolt.'_

All of a sudden, something heavy landed atop her. With a weak meow she gave in to it and collapsed to the ground. After a second she heard a vague muttering, then the unexpected incomer got off her. She got up, silently thanking no one in particular that she got out of this impact unharmed, then turned to face the new guest of this strange place. And she was completely stunned to see…

"Bolt?!" she screamed. "What… what are you doing here?"

"Well, you tell me… I was just about to superbark some agents of the Green Eyed Man when I felt that strange twirl in my head and landed here… wherever 'here' belongs to," he looked about the place.

"I wish I knew… But, wait a second, hadn't you stopped believing in the Green Eyed Man and all those imaginary stories you participated in?"

"What are you…?" he tilted his head a bit, confused, but after a while he nodded. "You may have a point here, Mittens… Besides, I didn't know you back then. But… unless some unnamed, evil force dragged me through the time… It makes no sense."

"Eureka," she muttered. "There is no way in and no way out, so we can't escape, but we also simply cannot be here, as we couldn't have come in… This place is too much of a paradox, it threatens with headache at every step," she complained.

For a moment they just stood in silence, then Bolt uncertainly came close to one of the abnormally white walls. He seemed deep in thought for a moment, then suddenly decided. He slowly put one of his hind legs a step back, then he moved one of his front legs forward a little, he gathered all his strength and barked at the wall with conviction.

After a short, awkward moment, he turned back and looked at her.

"What?" he asked in a half-guilty voice as he noticed she's looking at him like he was an alien. "It was worth trying, when even stranger things happen around…"

She rolled her eyes.

'_We're starting to lose sanity. And where? Wow, nowhere. I wish there was a door at least_.'

"Whoa!" Bolt exclaimed unexpectedly.

"What is it?" she opened her eyes widely when she saw what the dog was looking at. The wall in front of them, perfectly flat just a minute ago, now hosted a heavy wooden door.

Bolt came to the door and tried to push it open. She wished he could achieve that – and, luckily, it opened with a quiet creak. Bolt poked his nose into the next room, then pushed the door a bit harder. Behind it they saw another white room, an exact clone of the one they stood in.

"Is this some kinda joke?" she thought aloud. "Could someone explain me any of the things happening here?" she cried out, expecting no answer. Yet it came, in a booming voice coming from every corner, making both animals jump up from surprise.

"Yes, of course," the voice said.

'_I've heard something like that before…'_

"Rhino…?" she called, still a bit frightened. "Is this you playing with the ventilation again?"

"No."

'_You're really talkative, aren't ya?'_

"Mittens…?" Bolt cut in quietly, coming near her. His face showed pure incomprehension of the situation.

She shrugged to ensure him she's as surprised by all those events as he is, then looked up and asked aloud, "Who are you? And, most importantly: where are we?"

"I'm Morpheus, and you're in my arms… well, in my domain. But I have almost no power here, it's all under your control, Mittens."

"What the hell does it mean?! Something about arms, domains and control… Be more precise, please. Where are we?"

"You haven't moved an inch from where you actually are," her answer came.

She snorted. "If you don't want to tell us, fine. Just show us the exit…"

"I can't tell you more, it's your realm, you are to rule it, not me. And that reminds me - I have other things to do. Good luck!"

"Hey! That's not fair…" Mittens stood silent for a second. "Morpheus? Say something!"

Her calls were effortless though, Morpheus didn't return.

"Damn it… Bolt, did you understand anything from what that Morpheus, whoever he was, just said?"

"Well..." he answered hesitantly. "He said you got power, that you control the whole place… Haven't you noticed any signs of that?"

She already opened her mouth to deny it, when a crazy thought popped into her head. Was it possible, that _she_ created that door? If so…

'_I wish I could see where we are_,' she insisted silently.

Once more, Bolt spotted the new creation first.

"Hey, did you do this? Whatever 'this' is…"

She looked at what his was staring at and let out a quiet sigh.

An intangible image was hovering in the air halfway between them and one of the room's walls. She looked with disbelief at incredibly real, moving picture of… themselves. It reminded Rhino's beloved television, aka Magic Box, but this image was way more advanced than what the rodent enjoyed so much. She didn't care about the quality though, it was the view that made her shiver.

On the Image, as she called it, she was asleep, lying on a couch with a certain dog… much closer than she would ever consciously allow herself. It made her question the credibility of the Image. Besides, she knew all too well that Bolt always slept soundly, while the slumber of the animals it showed was very agitated and fidgety.

"Huh… now it makes sense," Bolt said suddenly.

"What are you talking about, crazy? You cannot possibly believe this ridiculous figment we're seeing-"

"Figment, that's the word!" he cut in, earning a strange look from her. "Don't you get it? It's all just a figment of your imagination! We're _in your dream_."

She was taken aback by the idea.

''No, no, no, no, that's… That's not even possible, what would you be doing here then?" she slapped her forehead. "It's either you going nuts again or me talking to a non-existent dog I'm considering real… If it's a dream, I want to wake up!" she screamed, pinching her cheek sturdily.

She heard Bolt - or the image of him - gasp. When she gave him a questioning look, he pointed the Image with his nose. She looked at it only because she was too confused to come up with any other reaction… and she froze, utterly shocked at the sight. The cat on the Image, supposedly herself… had a dribble of blood on her cheek, seeping from a small wound in the spot she had just pinched to wake up. Still in a state of desperate denial, she touched her face gently and was left agape when she saw the red spot on her paw.

"This isn't normal," she muttered. "What a weird dream is it anyway? Unless it ends quickly, I will be a total wreck in the morning," she looked at Bolt. He seemed to be thinking hard. She almost burst into laughter at the view.

'_His face is so amusing when he is exerting his mind...'_

He made her forget about worries and smile for the first time from the moment she became imprisoned… with an insignificant change of his look. Realization of this simple fact astonished her immensely.

"What are you thinking about?" she asked just to put her mind on anything else than thinking about this weird dream again.

'_Even naming it properly sounds weird, I cannot have a dream about a dog…'_

"Piano," he replied, cutting her thoughts short.

'_Again, it's either me or him going nuts… And, supposing that he's only a figment…' _She howled mentally_.' Is this ever going to end?'_

"Do you see that hole?" Bolt asked, pointing something behind her back. "Maybe it could lead us out of this room…? I see some very nice plains there."

She looked in the direction he pointed, but saw nothing.

'_What is this mental dog playing?'_

"Don't you see it?" he smirked. "Maybe you don't want to see it and your power does the job?"

"What?! Of course I want to see a hole that would let us escape this bloody prison…" her jaw dropped when part of the wall simply disappeared, letting her look at a beautiful meadow on the other side of it.

Bolt laughed happily and launched out of the room into fresh air. Led by an instinct, she gazed at the Image, the real world. Bolt, barely sleeping from the second the Image appeared, has suddenly relaxed, becoming soundly asleep. She smiled when he unwittingly dragged himself closer to her.

'_Maybe that's it… the nightmare's ended, so he returns to normal sleep. And why doesn't that move enrage me? Maybe I'm also starting to relax…'_

She decided not to deliberate the matter further, at the moment she had only one wish: to join the dog and calm down as he did. She run to the hole and glanced back… But there was nothing that would keep her from leaving this damned place. She smiled upon hearing a familiar barking and seeing Bolt, running towards her with a stick in his mouth. She took the final step out without further hesitation.

* * *

Bolt's ear twitched when a bothersome, mincing sound attacked it. He laid still for a moment, unwilling to give up on those wonderful dreams he was having yet. Unfortunately, all his sleepiness already vanished, so he finally surrendered and decided to get up. That's when he felt something really pleasant and warm lying on his back. After quick thinking, he decided not to get up just yet, but he couldn't help yawning. In the moment he opened his mouth, the mincing stopped. He opened his eyes to determine the source of this sound, when it - well, he - decided to reveal his identity without an order.

"Finally!" if hearing the addicted voice wasn't enough for him to recognize the speaker, Rhino was hopping blithely in his ball just a foot away from his nose.

"Shut it, hamster…" came a muttering voice from over Bolt's neck, but he hadn't time to think about the cat, bothered with something else. It was too late to react though, so he just watched in horror, as his friend's ball rolled on the remote…

The TV turned on immediately, showing a THX screen with the digital sound on full speakers' capability. The sound wave literally blew Mittens off Bolt's back. He knew what will happen now, so he was about to hold on the enraged cat, therefore preventing her from killing Rhino, when he spotted Penny.

In a flash all the events of previous day rolled through his mind, making his knees weak for a while. Long enough for him to lose his balance and land on the ground heavily. He could not see it, but his fall pacified his friends immediately. At the moment he didn't care though, seeing only his person. She went through the living room, not noticing the animals, then turned into the kitchen and started talking to her mom.

'_Mittens said it will get better in the morning, as time solves all problems… But… Penny never raised a hand against me.'_ He barely felt the impact with Penny's bedside table, what hurt most was the very fact that his person used corporal punishment against him. '_If I failed her too much… will she kick me out, sell me? Will I ever see Mittens and Rhino again?'_

Deep in apocalyptic thoughts, he haven't even noticed when he came into the kitchen. Ears and tail dropped, head low over the ground, he neared Penny. He was waiting for another strike, for a sharp word, for her to ignore him…

He never expected Penny to fall on her knees beside him, raise his head to make him look her in the eye and start apologizing.

"Bolt… I'm so sorry, doggy. I shouldn't have pushed you back then, I keep forgetting you don't know about so much things. I treated you like some stupid animal when you're my friend and I… I only hope you will be able to forgive me the cruel, undeserved treatment I brought upon you. I'm really sorry…" she trailed off, her voice wet with tears.

Bolt was completely astonished. Her reaction took him off-guard. He only managed to lick her nose to tell her how happy he is she forgave him. In response, she hugged him tightly, sobbing into his fur. But those were sobs of joy.

They remained silent for a minute or two, just sitting together, enjoying their reconciliation. Bolt has already been through an over week-long separation, but he was coming back to the person that loved him then. Now, when negative emotions cut in, even a few hours long separation was hell for both of them. But they were together again, so the only thing Bolt now wanted to do was…

"Wanna go play fetch?" Penny asked with the regular mirth returning to her voice. Bolt didn't even have to beg, she knew he probably longed for it as a final act of rejoining. She sniffed for the last time, chasing the sadness away, then stood up and rushed to the door, looking back on Bolt, who of course was hot on her heels.

* * *

Mittens and Rhino were sitting outside the kitchen, silently watching the scene. When Bolt came out after Penny and gazed at them, the hamster raised his thumbs and rolled back to his spot to watch something on the TV. Mittens only smirked. She had to speak with him, but this was not going to be possible in the closest hour or so - reconcilement will surely be the only thing Bolt will be able to think about. She didn't mind, he needed to end the nightmare of separation with his person.

Having considered that, she was astonished when he stopped in front of her. But he did even more – he leaned close to her, put his head over her neck and squeezed gently, whispering, "Thank you, Mittens. Thank you."

She was speechless, utterly confused. She haven't even noticed when he disappeared. It could have been minutes, it could as well have been hours, even days. It just didn't matter to her.

She finally found her happiness.


	3. Fun, boredom and heroism

**Author's notes**:

If you wish to know something more about the story, you're most welcome to visit my profile - there you can find tons of useful, additional informations about the story.

In the meantime, enjoy reading the story ;)

* * *

**Real life hurts**

by TigressPL

**Chapter 3: Fun, boredom and heroism  
**

Two hours have passed since Bolt and Penny went out to play and they were still at it. Mittens was patient though – after eating breakfast, something those two evidently didn't need, she laid down besides Rhino, devoting some of her spare time to learn something more about her… friend. She never truly understood how this rodent keeps his energy from exploding in him – when he really wanted to, he could muster enormous amounts of strength, and yet he preferred to spend whole days on a sofa, watching his beloved Magic Box. She tried to start a conversation, but the only thing she got in return was 'yeah', 'nah' and 'huh?'

After five minutes she gave up and simply watched some criminal movie with the hamster, sending him a pitiful glance every time he exclaimed one of his favorite phrases. She really wanted to understand him better, though she soon understood the only way to achieve that would be to destroy the TV. Besides, from the very beginning she treated this activity as a way to fill the time while waiting for the dog to return, so the failure didn't hurt that much.

Finally, they got back. Penny was panting – she probably tried to retreat from their game too soon and Bolt chased her down. Seeing that Penny went to the kitchen for some breakfast and Bolt lagged slightly behind, she used the opportunity to approach him and discuss few things. He seemed absent-minded, a blank expression on his face, so she gently nudged him. He flinched, regained his awareness and looked at her, opening his mouth to say something… But instead he just stared at her, mouth agape.

She endured it for a while, but finally lost her patience. "What is it, Bolt, is this some kinda new joke of yours?"

"Have you…" he started, looking like he wasn't sure what he really wanted to tell her. "Have you had a weird dream about a perfectly white room, door emerging out of nowhere and a window-like thing to watch us sleeping?"

Her jaw dropped and it was her turn to remain speechless for a moment, thinking hard about what she just heard.

"Yes, but wha-" she hadn't had a chance to end a sentence before her friend pointed the mirror hanging on a wall right next to the entrance of the kitchen. She gazed at it and froze.

She had a fresh scab on her cheek.

* * *

Two pigeons were flying high above the buildings of Hollywood's suburbs. Their flight was unsteady, every so often they switched through air currents, separating for the time being, then rejoining, though they didn't seem to notice.

"Hey, Huey?" called one of them, with slightly green feathers on his neck. "Thah new type o'cake wah undredi… unpreci… surprisingly gooth, eh?"

"Yeah," the other replied, shakily keeping the altitude. 'That ting dey call… al.. al… alcohol? I thinh thah didda job…" he smiled dreamily.

"Ya, know wha? I gotta rest fa a while, this is killin' me," with that, the green pigeon started a crazy nose-dive towards the ground, dragging his companion after him. They neared a square house, standing alone, only one within sight. Huey spread his wings, trying to land on a railing. He aimed well, but he didn't reduce his speed appropriately; that mistake caused him to smash into a wooden column, supporting the roof. He recovered quickly and glanced behind him, looking for his friend…

"Joey, no!" he exclaimed, once he saw what the other pigeon was up to do. All the vagueness disappeared from his voice, driven away by fear. "We don't sit on those, we are too he-" he was cut short when the electricity line, connecting the house to the pole, gave in to the weight of the bird. Luckily, the culprit managed to catch air before he hit the ground. Huey was by his side in a second.

"Great job," he snapped, angry with his friend about scaring him silly. "I hope that's been enough of a rest for you, let's go."

Joey shrugged, not sure what just happened, but he followed his friend into the air, resuming their journey.

* * *

_Meanwhile, in the house in question…_

An armored bus crashed into a wall of the building and broke through intact. It stopped inside, letting several highly equipped special soldiers leave it. They immediately opened fire, meteorically tearing some aliens, present in the room, apart.

"Awesome!" commented an addicted voice. Rhino leaned closer to the TV to see every detail better, when all of a sudden, the appliance went off.

"Hey!" he turned round, sure that Mittens or Penny's mother turned his precious Magic Box off for some stupid reason. Though, the remote laid a few steps further, and no one was within his sight.

"Creepy…" he muttered, rolling towards it. He tried pushing some buttons, but the TV didn't react. That's when the truth hit him: somebody broke his beloved form of entertainment.

"You vile, barbarous agents of evil… You will never beat me, not if I shall call forth whole my strength, every piece of my long training…" during the monologue he got out of his ball, stretching quickly. "Have at least the tiniest bit of courage and show up, you pathetic destroyers!"

Nothing happened.

"I thought so, you damn bastards. Don't think you can hide though – I have razor-sharp eyes and possess the powers you wouldn't even surmise a warrior my size could ever be vested with!"

Still nothing.

"I wonder where Bolt is?" he left his maniacal voice and looked about the room once more. "Probably with Mittens, taking new lessons. Well, I'll have to try and fill my time with something not connected to the Magic Box. Let's see…" he rested his chin on his hand and took a blank expression, thinking deeply.

* * *

While Bolt and Mittens had been talking in the living room, Penny had quickly eaten her breakfast and decided to go for a walk in a park with her mother, both animals eagerly joining them, even though Bolt hadn't eaten anything today. It was still early, so he didn't really care, he was more focused on discussing the newly arisen situation with his feline friend. Granted, the park wasn't near Penny's home, there was a forest closer, but they had lots of time, so they decided that it will be good as a target of a long walk.

"Dear, there's something I was about to tell you yesterday, but in all this commotion… I mean, first you were preparing for the party, then you came back so angry that you wouldn't talk to anyone… It escaped my memory."

"What is it, mom?" Penny asked.

"I just got a call from Sovereign Entertainment… They want you back, Penny, you and Bolt… I have my doubts, I'll admit, but they offered you a new agent. He seemed to understand your situation quite well and… I thought we could at least hear out what do they have to offer."

"You're right," Penny agreed after a while. "It's worth hearing out. I already miss that job, but… won't it interrupt my lessons? I won't quit school for them."

"Of course not, honey. That's why the agent has to be a specialist, I'm sure he'll gladly answer each of your questions."

"Sounds good. When will this new guy come?"

"He's going to pay us a visit at noon, so in an hour we should go back. We don't want to leave him waiting for us at our doorstep."

* * *

_Back in the house... five minutes later._

A perfectly still figure of a hamster didn't move a bit of his body, save one finger that he continuously rubbed against his chin.

* * *

Knowing the perfect manners Bolt had (as long as he could see her), Penny didn't bother keeping him on his leash. As she was walking with her mother, the two animals had laid down under a tree. They were enjoying the shade and the wind, both soothing the heat of the last days of August, as well as the overall tranquil atmosphere of the park. The reason why it seemed so silent here came to them after few minutes: the absence of Rhino's always-on Magic Box was unbelievably explicit.

"Ahhh, I could spend weeks just lying here," Mittens said in a dreamy tone.

"Would you focus a bit?" Bolt was evidently unable to relax. "We have to unravel the mystery of this weird dream we both had last night…"

"Oh, please, would you just stop it? I simply scratched myself in my sleep, the rest is simply a coincidence."

"You know it's not!" the dog snapped. "You didn't move a paw in that window-like thing in our… your dream, the blood simply started to seep from your _real_ cheek when you scratched yourself in the dreamworld..."

"It was a dream, Bolt! It wasn't real, like your previous life!" Mittens was clearly fed up with the discussion.

Bolt was about to answer, when his stomach rumbled, reminding him that he skipped supper and breakfast. The ex-super dog smirked, forgetting about the riposte and put an afraid look onto his face. He caught his belly and sat down, looking at Mittens with a perfectly feigned look of fear and hate.

"What is that?" he screamed. "Ok, you have two seconds to tell me what you've implanted in me, cat. Poison? A parasite? Poison? Oh no, I just said that didn't I? See, I'm all discombobulated! I can't think straight."

The cat rose up, grinning widely before taking on a serious expression and responding in an evil tone. "Finally, the Man with a Blue Eye will win! I'll never give you an antidote, it's kept safely in his fortress, guarded by a vicious, genetically altered hamster."

Bolt came up and neared the cat with a menacing look.

"Give me that antidote…" seeing that his efforts are useless, he suddenly changed tactic, tilting his head a bit, dropping his ears and slightly looking up. "…please?" he added in a begging tone.

Mittens couldn't hold it any longer. She sniggered, shaking her head.

"You're one damn good actor, you son of a bitch…"

After a while the pun sunk in and they both burst into laughing.

* * *

_Back at the house… fifteen minutes later._

The only moving thing in the living room was a certain finger, rubbing certain cheek.

_Five minutes later…_

"I have no idea," Rhino snapped, coming down from the sofa. He decided to walk around the house, maybe that way he'll find something fun to do…

* * *

"You stand no chance against me, cat, nor do your miserable brethren, for you have chosen the path of evil. Even though you tried to recreate my superpowers in those pathetic friends of yours, I do not fear, as my allegiance to good will give me the strength I need to-"

"Eh?" Mittens cut in, faking a yawn. "Sorry, I felt asleep at 'miserable'. Did you say anything worthwhile?"

"That's enough, you sordid creature of darkness! Now I will-" he didn't have a chance to finish again, as Mittens struck a pose.

"Don't you move! Or I will summon my mind-blowing powers to make you fall sleep and cut a scratch in your cheek!"

"Oh no!" he crawled away from her, again taking on a horrified expression. "That mark of evil would obliterate all the good in me, that I might even abandon Penny! That's never gonna happen, as-"

Once more, he was cut short, when loud hail reached them, 'Bolt, Mittens! Come on, we're going back home!" Penny called.

"Will anyone let me finish any of-" he started once more.

"-your lines?" Mittens grinned widely. "No."

* * *

"Boooooring!" yawned Rhino, pacing lazily around the kitchen table.

For over an hour he tried to find anything to do, but his efforts were fruitless. There was nothing to eat, nothing to watch, no one to talk to, generally: nothing to do.

Resigned, he came over to a wall and hit it with his forehead. Even the air-hole wasn't fun anymore. He could once more exclaim his dissatisfaction with boredom and let it echo, but when no one was going to hear it…

He suddenly blinked, remembering a part of Bolt's story about the great fire, when he saved Penny, using the ventilation to enhance his bark to Superbark… But before that, he crawled into it and was about to get out… That's it!

The hamster rubbed his hands, looking at the air-hole with newly born interest. Then he started climbing up the plastic construction. It wasn't easy, but he managed to unscrew it. He smiled contentedly.

"There's no screw that I know, that can-" he suddenly silenced, when the wall started to recede at hectic pace. The suspended voice turned into scream, when he spotted also hurriedly closing floor.

Fortunately, the fall from one foot wasn't too dangerous for a rodent his size, so after a while he pulled himself together with a moan. It hurt, but he forgot about the pain in the second as he glanced inside the duct. It was twice the hamster's width and a thick layer of dust lingered on the ground.

"Let it begin, let it begin!" he cried out before going into the darkness in search of new adventures.

* * *

They were headed in the direction of Penny's voice, when Bolt suddenly stopped.

"Wait a second…" he muttered, now deep in thought. "She called you by your name…"

"Yeeeeah," she answered, looking at him like at some kind of a freak. "That's what they usually do when they want to get your attention or make you come to them…"

"How did she know your name in the first place?"

She sent him a glance, full of astonishment. She opened her mouth to say something sarcastic, but just then the thought sunk deeper and she just stood there, mouth agape, staring at the dog.

"I'm telling you, something strange is happening here," Bolt stated, resuming their trek towards their owners. He waited until she joined him before he continued his thought.

"It was always like that in my previous life. Whenever something strange happened, it was a clear sign that a new adventure is about to begin. Just like back then, when we were following an agent of the Green Eyed Man, who disappeared after going around the corner…"

"Bolt, how many times do I have to repeat it? It. Was. Not. Real!"

"Yeah, but you… and Rhino, which is even more important for the case, told me that it's always based on reality. If in the show mysterious events preceded every thrilling mission, why should it be different in this real life?"

She didn't answer, thinking it over hard.

* * *

It was already half past eleven when the family neared their home, as they didn't bother to go fast, they simply enjoyed the stroll. This somewhat irked Bolt, as his hunger was screaming louder and louder to him, but he didn't say a word to complain… mostly because he was still trying to explain how in the world did his person and her mother figure out Mittens'… and Rhino's names.

He was indeed so deeply in thought, that he didn't even notice Penny's playful attempts to make him run with her. That startled Mittens greatly - since Bolt became a normal dog… well more normal than before, he jumped on any opportunity to enjoy time with his person. Now, with a serious look on his face he stared off into the distance. Even such an insignificant indication of how deeply he cared about the situation made her heart heavier. Will he ever be able to snap out of this?

'_Of course he will, he's just been through a lot_,' she scolded herself. '_It hasn't even been two months since his whole world has been torn asunder, he'll need more time to adjust.'_

She gently nudged him. It hurt her to see that even despite coming out of his reverie his face remained so serious. In the past weeks she got thoroughly accustomed to him smiling most of the time.

'_Sad or angry, his face is still so… soft. Now his old customs start to take over, once more hardening his wonderful face… Wait a second… I didn't think that, did I?'_

To her utter relief, Bolt summoned her favorite smile once he understood her concern. He rushed after his person, barking with excitement, followed by gazes of his feline friend and Penny's mother.

Speaking of whom…

"Oh my," she sighed as she saw the electricity wire, hanging loosely from the pole. "I wonder how this happened," she muttered, taking out a cell phone to call for service.

* * *

As soon as they got into house, both Penny and her mom rushed to their rooms to get dressed properly for a semi-official visit, leaving the animals behind. They watched them dash upstairs.

"Man, I'm hungry," Bolt complained. He was panting after running with Penny, but only because he lacked energy due to missing two meals. Considering that, there was nothing weird in the fact that a second later he was in the kitchen, devouring the meal prepared for him in the morning by Penny's mom.

Mittens smiled, contended that her friend finally got over those strange thoughts he had. He would surely go back to them, but she was thankful for what she has at the moment.

"Is it just me, or is it strangely silent in here?" Bolt asked, having finished his late breakfast in record-breaking time.

'_What made him so perceptive lately?'_

"Yeah, now that you mention it… Of course!"

Bolt tilted his head in confusion.

"The TV is off.. That means Rhino can't watch it for some reason, so he probably… um… What does that crazy rodent do when he isn't watching that damn thing?"

"As far as I'm concerned, last time he willingly left the 'Magic Box' he traveled across whole world with his idol and his prisoner."

She laughed, then looked about the kitchen and saw the vent open. She pointed it out to the dog and they both went closer to examine it.

"One would think that bolts would be enough protection against rodents," she sighed.

"Hey!" bolt defended. "I'm the only Bolt around, plus I haven't been around…"

It took Mittens a while to understand what was he talking about.

"I meant bolts, like… screws!" she explained.

"Ah… Yeah, looks like someone who invented the screws… SCREWED the job," he snorted.

"SCREWyou!" she joined his laughing. "I see your mood has ameliorated, hasn't it?"

"Yeah," he admitted. "Why shouldn't it? I got the best company I could imagine, I'm near my person, my stomach's full, and we've got a reason to laugh… What more could a dog want?"

'_Best company he could imagine? I came before his beloved »person«? Is it possible, that I've become that important to him? And does he..? Oh, damn. Not again. Get the hell out, stupid thoughts!'

* * *

_

Five minutes after noon, a firm knocking echoed over the house, immediately pulling the host out of her lair. Penny's mom quickly went over to the door and opened it, silencing Bolt along the way.

Standing in the doorway was a young, perhaps twenty-five year old man with long brown hair, tied neatly. He was dressed formally and carried a traditional briefcase. The only thing that didn't match an image of a regular bureaucrat was the helmet he was holding. Indeed, looking over his arm, she spotted a black Harley, left on the side of the street.

"Good morning… Mrs. Beatrix Fisher, I presume?"

"In person," Penny's mother smiled. "Please, come in."

She led the agent inside, pointing a place to leave his helmet. He obeyed, and then kneeled in front of Bolt.

"Hello, dog-star," he let the dog sniff his hand and petted him after the animal was done.

Having completed the welcoming ritual, he followed Beatrix to living room, where the host seated him at the table.

"I don't know if you already noticed it ma'am, but your power line has been snapped."

"Yes, that's why I cannot offer you tea or coffee, I'm sorry."

"Oh, please, don't be."

"Good morning," Penny greeted him, coming into the room.

"And this would be our talented actress, Penny, right?" he smiled. "My name's Arthur Black and I'm here to discuss some ideas with you and your mother."

"What exactly?" Beatrix inquired, sitting next to Penny on a sofa, opposite to agent's armchair. "I thought Sovereign Entertainment replaced Penny with that… Laura Newman, isn't it?"

"Correct," Arthur smiled. "The only problem is… What the hell?" he trailed off, hearing multiplied squeak, coming out of ventilation. "Are there rats in your house?"

"No, of course not!" defended the host. "It has to be Rhino…" seeing the are-you-nuts look of agent, she quickly added, "our hamster. I wonder how he got in there though…"

"Well, never mind. Where was I?" asked the agent. "Ah, yes. Forgive me for such bluntness, but… the new 'Penny' sucks. The show is losing popularity, S.E., I mean Sovereign Entertainment, is going to end it, abandon production. This visit is the last attempt to save 'Bolt' from disappearing…"

"The only culprit of the lowering popularity is the new actress? I can't believe it," said Beatrix.

"Well, of course she isn't. The new Bolt… I'm sorry, I keep forgetting that dog's name, he's still slightly afraid of some scenes, so shooting them lasts days. And bear in mind that the show was always focused on Bolt; he, I mean the original Bolt, always presented the highest level of emotion in expressions, moves, in everything. His substitute is far from that, he's… shallow. What's more, the surveys show that our viewers don't like the new plot, including aliens."

"How are you going to fix that?" Penny asked. "The aliens will simply disappear? Transforming me… um, _her_ into me and sending me and Bolt back to Earth first?"

"No, of course not," Arthur smiled. "The new plot is going to…" he started to describe scenarios for upcoming episodes.

* * *

When people began to talk to themselves, Bolt lost his interest in them and returned to the kitchen. Mittens was sitting in the doorway, probably waiting for him to get back from the traditional barking at the newcomer. He sat beside her, waiting for her to say something, when the idea hit him. After a few seconds, he glanced at the cat – she was saying something, he just didn't hear a word.

"…Bolt?" was all he heard. She clearly spotted his reverie.

"I think I know why this guy came here," he explained. "He came from that place where I spent whole my previous life, which means-"

"You know where did he come from?" Mittens cut in. "_How?"_

"I _felt_ it... That guy _smells_ like that place."

"Right, how could I forget about that particular ability?" she asked semi-sarcastically.

"The presence of this man," Bolt continued, undiscouraged by her comments, "means they are going to take Penny back to that studio, with me… We're going to perform again…" Mittens searched for a sign of joy or sadness in his voice, but it seemed clean of any emotion.

"Is that… a bad thing?"

"Are you joking? This is fantastic!" he exclaimed, suddenly grinning. "This means more time spent with my person, plus I'll be back to what I do best…"

He looked at her and lost all of his glee.

"But… it will also mean less time spent with my friends…"

'_Does he really care THAT much?'_

"Nah, forget about it, we'll find a way to keep in contact, as now you won't spend your life on the set, right? Come on, it's your dream, it's your purpose in life…"

* * *

"So," the agent asked his possible clients. "Are you in?"

"We'll discuss it," assured Beatrix. "The offer is fair and I think everything has been planned to the last detail, but making decisions in haste is never a good idea. When are you going to resume the production?"

"Well, if I managed to convince you today we were to start new session tomorrow, but-"

"Perfect," she cut in. "We'll contact you in the evening with our final decision."

"Of course," he smiled, standing up. "So… I will wait impatiently for the call. Thank you for hearing me out and… have a nice day."

"You too," Beatrix smiled back, escorting him to the door.

* * *

"Investigation of Doctor Calico's top-secret laboratory proceeds as scheduled," Rhino was in his element, narrating his own trek. "After climbing a hundred-story building without an elevator," he referred to some vertical sections of ventilation duct, "and getting through a labyrinth, based in its shape on Gordian knot… he's ready for everything. He knows doctor Calico would never leave his building guarded only by a curved wall, so he expects a new danger to arise in any moment… I summon you, minions of-" he stopped, seeing some movement in the darkness. "Ha! You finally decided to challenge me! Bring it on!"

After a moment of focusing on seeing every possible detail, the hamster was able to differentiate the approaching shape from the background. He swallowed hard; he could discern eight legs and a torso. The spider standing against him was much bigger than him and even though Rhino was doubtlessly heavier, the upcoming battle was going to be even.

They stood still for a moment…

"Die!" All of a sudden, the hamster lunged at the spider, catching one of its legs and sliding under his torso. He didn't release the leg, causing it to tangle with other three right limbs and making the arachnid fall to the ground. He let out a happy cry and tried to break the held leg, but he was too weak. In the meantime, the spider had managed to get up and counter-attack. His two front legs crossed over Rhino's neck, immobilized him and caused him to fight for breath.

He had to admit, this fight was beyond him. With last-ditch effort he pushed the legs keeping him up, and then pulled, causing the spider to collapse to the ground once more. The rodent whooped gleefully, but ran away, knowing that a longer fight could cost him his life.

He ran fast, aware that the spider will soon begin pursuit. Fortunately, he found an air hole fast. It was kept in place by two screws, so he reached out and started to twirl his hands at a hectic pace.

* * *

Bolt and Mittens were still standing in the kitchen door, watching the agent leave.

"As I said, don't worry about the separation, we will-" Mittens started.

"Shhhh," Bolt cut in, twitching his ear at barely audible jingle of metal against wooden floor.

"Why, what…?" she suddenly understood, seeing the expression upon his face. He was trying to listen.

'_But to what?'_

She couldn't hear it, but another, identical jingle sounded in the room. Bolt immediately turned his head towards where the sound came from, only to spot a vent near the ceiling fall from its place and show a certain hamster behind it, looking as he was readying to jump out.

Mittens, led by the dog's eyes direction and a new, loud clang also spotted this and froze in horror. There was no way the hamster was going to live after falling from the twelve foot height. She wanted to glance at Bolt, but he was no longer on her side.

She watched in horror as Rhino screamed frightened to no end and leaped forward, while Bolt jumped at the sofa, ran upon its backrest and leaped high into the air using his hind legs, flying upside down and head forward towards the falling hamster.

Miraculously, he managed to catch the rodent in his mouth – ten feet over the floor!

Bolt smiled slightly, holding his friend safe in his jaws. He didn't even think about what he's doing, it was an instinct of saving his beloved ones – and, however strangely that sounded with reference to the hamster, he was a part of his family. He wondered if Mittens saw that and what would she say – maybe she'll smile with this beautiful smile of hers…

'_Did I really think that?'_ He snapped in his thoughts. '_I cannot possibly…'_

Thoughts, vision, everything suddenly cut out with a sudden outburst of pain in his head. He only heard a clatter of breaking glass before everything blacked out.


	4. The return of the real Bolt

**Author's notes**:

If you wish to know something more about the story, you're most welcome to visit my profile - there you can find tons of useful, additional informations about the story.

In the meantime, enjoy reading the story ;)

* * *

**Real life hurts**

by TigressPL

**Chapter 4: Return of the real Bolt  
**

After what felt like a thousand years passing in a heartbeat, Bolt regained consciousness. He decided to simply enjoy the silence for a moment. For if leaving the set taught him anything, it was that there is always a worse alternative. But the outer world wouldn't remain calm just because one of its inhabitants wished it to do so…

First, there were voices, silent and indistinct. Then, the surrounding world demanded his attention with heavy sun pressure upon his eyelids. Ha accepted the call and opened his eyes.

And once more felt validity of a rule Mittens told him: "Real life hurts".

Sun hit his eyes, blinding him, while a new, somewhat familiar pain awoke in his forehead. He slammed his eyes shut. Plus, his mouth felt like he's been poisoned… or worse. The taste was simply disgusting. He groaned and noticed that it silenced the voices he heard… for a while.

"Well, well, look who's finally up!"

"What are you talking about, Mittens?" he didn't dare to open his eyes again, but he recognized the voice easily without it. "And why is sun shining so bright? It wasn't a minute ago."

"A minute ago? Bolt, you've been out for, like what, 20 hours?"

"20 hours?!" he opened his eyes to look at her in astonishment and immediately regretted that. "Ow… but why do I feel like I just ate a handful of dust?"

"Ask the hamster," she pointed down from the couch they were sitting on.

"Bolt!" he didn't have to ask. "I thought you forgot what it means to be a hero… But you were fully AWESOME."

"Wait… what happened?"

Rhino smiled mysteriously and put on his favorite narrative voice.

"It all started when an agent of the Green Eyed Man, sent here probably to assassinate you, destroyed the Magic Box. He managed to enrage me with that, so I caught him and he bit the dust. That's when something else caught my attention…"

For unknown reasons, Mittens decided not to interrupt rodent's tale this time, so for over ten minutes Bolt was forced to listen how Rhino got through an impassable maze of Doctor Calico's underground tunnels and fought with a vicious monster, a giant spider called Richard the Destroyer. In the story, super-hamster easily beat the living daylights out of his enormous enemy, found the way out of the tunnel and performed a superjump along with his hero.

"Wait, I remember that… You were about to jump from the air-hole, so I rushed out to catch you mid-air, to prevent you from killing yourself … But what happened next?"

"You slammed into a cabinet with a force of a train," as usual, Mittens was straightforward. "I can't stop wondering two things though: how did you jump that high… and how did you live through that impact?"

"'Well… I jumped, because I had to in order to save Rhino… and I'm still alive as I have a perfect reason to live…" he smiled at her, unsure if he wanted her to understand what he meant. Actually, he wasn't even sure if he meant what he meant…

A moment of awkward silence followed.

"By the way…" she rubbed the back of her head, deciding to break the tension. "That's the fastest healing bruise I've ever seen," she pointed his head.

"A bruise…?" he gasped. "Oh no, we're going back to the studio with Penny tomorrow…"

"Today," she corrected him.

"Perfect," he snapped. "Penny wanted to go back to performing and what does she get from her dog?"

"Nah, forget about it… Make-up will cover everything."

"Bolt!" Penny's voice preceded her by mere seconds. "You're okay!"

She hugged him tightly, then looked at him seriously and asked:

"We're going back on the set. Are you happy with this?" she laughed after he licked her face to express his approval.

"But, honey, will he be okay? He's hit that cabinet really hard…"

"Will you be okay, Bolty?" she asked, petting him. He barked enthusiastically, ensuring her he'll manage to do anything needed.

"I think he's gonna be just fine. When are we leaving, mom?"

"It's only 8 a.m., Mr. Black said we are to start shooting at 10 a.m., so we have plenty of time for a good breakfast… I think we'll be going out at 9.15 – this way we'll be there before time."

* * *

_Five quarters later…_

"Penny, come on, it's time to go!"

"Coming!"

Bolt waited impatiently near the door, wagging his tail in expectancy of the adventures he was about to go back to. Rhino was right next to him, bursting with emotions. Only animal that wasn't completely overexcited was Mittens, lying in a comfortable, sunlit spot on a sofa.

Even though she had her eyes closed, she knew perfectly well what's going on; mostly because Rhino's behavior in the given situation was completely predictable and the others' agenda was explicit. Just as she thought, she heard door opening and everybody coming out.

"Sorry, you can't go with us, Rhino," sounded Penny's voice. Of course, Mittens didn't understand the words, but the message was clear.

A sound of starting engine promised long and peaceful nap. One that could be interrupted only by a certain rodent. And considering he lacked his favorite instrument of torture…

"How can you just lie there when Bolt's gone?" came an accusing question.

"It's really simple, Rhino," she answered quietly, still in the state of semi-consciousness, guaranteeing her immediate and sound sleep as soon as she got rid of the hamster. "I'm enjoying the silence, you know the word?"

"I'm not gonna sit here idly when Bolt's gone for more awesome adventures! I want out!" he screamed. Judging by the sound, she supposed he's hitting the door with his ball.

'_It's no use, you stupid rodent… Though I wish you succeeded… I'd have found piece, you – adrenaline,' _she thought sleepily. '_Hah, he must have acknowledged he stands no chance to open these door…_

_Though it's weird, he's silent for over a minute…'_

"Rhino?" she called half-heartedly, unsure if she wanted him to answer. But when he didn't…

'_Why do I care anyway?'_ she asked herself, opening one eye and gaining a view at home's front door. They were open. '_Oh, great, he did that. Now I can go back into… __**What?!**__' s_he jumped up, suddenly realizing what she just saw.

"Beatrix must have forgotten to close the door," she muttered, as if she was trying to convince herself. Alas, the thing she needed to find wasn't an explanation, it was Rhino's reaction…

'_What could he possibly do? Judging by what I know already… anything.'_

"Where are you, crazy rodent?" she called, going out through the doorway. She was caught completely off-guard by the door when it slammed shut right after her, threatening with a heart attack.

'_There can be only one culprit.'_

"Gotcha!" Rhino exclaimed gleefully. "Now, let us not waste the daylight, cat! We have to go!"

"Considering that I'll mercifully skip over ripping you apart for scaring me to death, how are you going to make me go with you?" she smirked.

"You can't go back," he reasoned, then took on a mischievous smile and added, "Plus, yesterday's weather forecast foreshadowed rain for today…"

This, of course, convinced her immediately.

'_I'll get to see Bolt in his element,' _she thought. '_Maybe it's not gonna be so bad?'_

She sighed with feigned weariness to cover up her secret semi-excitement before setting off in the well-known direction with her annoying rodent companion.

* * *

A bleak corridor was thoroughly empty. It looked really repulsive with its walls and floor covered in a slimy substance emitting a repugnant stench. The only surfaces untouched by the filthy mucus were metal plates, about square meter size each, scattered on the floor.

Suddenly, the inhospitable passageway filled with sound of tramping, announcing some lost wanderer, thrown into this hellish hallway by a vicious stroke of fate. Indeed, a second later two figures stormed into, skidding to a halt at the edge of the first slab.

"It looks like that poisonous muck they kept in laboratory," said one of the newcomers, a teenage girl with brown hair. "We need to be extremely careful," she instructed her companion, a mid-sized white German Sheppard. "One touch of this caustic liquid can burn through nearly every matter."

For a while they remained silent, jumping over the plates hurriedly, yet cautiously. Suddenly something sounded from the girl's backpack. She spotted a metal niche on a side of the corridor, providing a firm shelter from the sinister substance. She swiftly jumped inside.

"Guard!" she ordered, kneeling on the floor and taking her rucksack off. She pulled a laptop and opened it, glanced at the screen and smiled contentedly. "My program broke through the code those damned aliens are using to protect their data… and its cooperation with the language database works fine. Now…" she started clicking on the keyboard at a hectic pace.

Bolt, standing in the center of the hallway, was looking at his person with partial interest. Suddenly, his ear twitched as he heard an odd sound. He turned to look down the hallway and spotted a light-blue beam, hovering over one of the metal plates two meters down the corridor. He growled menacingly, but didn't move from his position until the light took shape of a semi-humanoid being. That's when he leapt into the air, flying straight at the luminous creature.

The materializing alien hadn't had as much as a chance to react, as in the very moment it took a solid form, a white blur hit it in the chest. With an indescribable shriek the alien fell back, tumbling into the caustic liquid and annihilating in a flash, unable to resist the destroying influence this matter had on its body.

"I knew that!" Penny's exclamation echoed in the passageway. "We're headed correctly, shield generators are at our fingertips! Come on, Bolt, we have to enter those passwords onto the… Bolt! Look out!" she screamed, suddenly taking on a horrified look.

The dog glanced back, down the corridor. A group of fifteen weird creatures of various size and shape stood there, communicating with sounds incomprehensible for any human or animal. Suddenly all of them started to run over the plates, quickly reducing the distance between them and their supposed prey. Bolt only hardened his expression, then slowly moved his right hind leg backwards, put his left front leg a pace forward, accumulated energy and let out a powerful bark. The mighty sound wave condensed in a narrow passage and blew the hostile beings away, along with a fair amount of the poisonous substance. Result of mixing those two ingredients was easy to predict – soon there was no sign indicating that any alien ever visited this part of the ship.

"Bolt, let's go!" called Penny, jumping back onto one of the slabs and leading her pet down the corridor…

…back onto the set.

* * *

Beatrix stopped the car gently at the internal parking of Sovereign Entertainment's complex. They were before time due to minimal traffic. She wondered what Penny must be feeling, returning to the place she almost died in. Being her mother, Beatrix was very anxious, but she understood that it had been an accident and such situation won't probably recur. Plus, Penny enjoyed her job, gained a great opportunity of future employment… and provided the family enough funds for a snug living despite Beatrix's current lack of job.

Penny appeared as deep in thought as her mother.

"Honey… what's up?" Beatrix asked with concern.

"I was just thinking about how our work will look, now that Bolt is no longer thinking of himself as of a hero with superpowers. I mean… the director will undoubtedly want to make the most of the situation and Bolt wasn't trained to…"

"Oh, sweetie… Relax, they are specialists, they wouldn't bother to get you back if they hadn't found a way to communicate with Bolt in this new situation," seeing her daughter smile, she did the same and clapped her hands. "Well, they're not gonna wait for us forever, and we have nothing to do here nonetheless. Let's go back to your and Bolt's world!"

Both of them got out from the car, then Penny let Bolt out from the backseat and whole trio moved in the well-known direction of director's office. They reached it after few minutes, easily finding the way through a maze of studio's corridors and stages. Beatrix reached her hand to knock on the door, but she hadn't have a chance as they opened in the very moment.

"So I can safely assume our brightest stars will honor us with their presence as scheduled?" asked the man, who opened the door, looking in the other direction. His favorite brown suit and unmistakable voice immediately told the family who are they looking at – Sean Tyler, director of 'Bolt'.

"Speaking of the devil," another familiar voice came from inside the office. "Turn around, Sean."

"Mrs. Fisher! Penny!" the director exclaimed upon seeing his visitors. "It is an unspeakable mirth to see you back in my domain, ladies. As well as you," he kneeled to pet Bolt. "Our hero."

"We're glad to see you too," answered Beatrix. "If you don't mind though, we have some questions concerning our return to the studio…"

"Of course, I'll gladly answer all of them, but it's about time I went to stage three… Can we continue our conversation there?"

While they were talking, owner of the familiar voice they heard joined them outside, as Arthur Black, Penny's new agent, emerged from office.

"Come on, Bolt!" the girl called when the adults set off. The director suddenly stopped.

"I'm sorry to put it bluntly, but Bolt cannot go with us, Penny… He could unintentionally corrupt the sound recording."

"Oh… so, uh, where should I leave him?"

Sean was deeply in thought for a while, then suddenly smiled. "Why not stage five? He'll fell homely there, mostly because that's where we left his old trailer."

"It sounds ok," Penny agreed.

* * *

When the door to the stage shut behind him, cutting him from his person, Bolt moved back and forth for a while, whining anxiously, but when he understood he was left alone, he slowly relaxed. Having calmed down, he looked about the place he was left in and smiled fondly, spotting what has been his home for most of his life – a trailer with a star and his name upon its door. He came inside, but found nothing interesting – Penny took both his toys and their photos when she left the job.

He was trying to think of something to do now, when he suddenly heard two voices outside.

"Uh, this new 'Bolt' is tiring… The old one could at least converse at a reasonable level."

"Yeah, and he wasn't free to go all over the facility. I already lost over a pound due to all this running whenever he sees us," the other responded.

"Ok, you got a point, that's one good thing resulting from the change in cast…"

"Eh? I mean-"

The voices sounded very familiar to him. Curious, he got out of the trailer to check if he was right and sneered when he spotted two cats sitting by the trailer, completely unaware of his presence, as they were facing other direction. He opened his mouth to say hello, but was cut short by the black cat.

"Look out, it's him!" the feline exclaimed, pointing a random direction. The trick would probably have no effect, but in that very moment the second cat glanced back. His friend's warning immediately combined with the view and with a mighty shriek the obese cat bolted out.

"Take it easy, I was jok-" the black cat froze after unintentionally gazing back… And joined his chubby companion in a flash. Both cats quickly hid behind some decorations, left in the corner.

Bolt couldn't help laughing at their antics. His substitute must have been a real pain in the neck for them. He wanted to tell them to relax… when suddenly a new idea popped to his head as he remembered his acting game with Mittens yesterday.

"I finally got you, you pathetic, degenerated creatures of evil!' he shouted in their direction. "You'll no longer be of any use to the Green Eyed Man!"

"Oh great," the obese cat said silently. "Out of the frying pan into the fire…"

"Hey, Bolt!" the other feline called, trying to sound bold. "There were rumors that someone finally showed you the difference between stage and real life…"

"Don't believe everything you hear, cat. I still don't know my life was fake."

After a moment of silence, the pun sunk in and the more eloquent of the two finally spoke out.

"So… We're cool, right? You're not gonna chase us, or pounce at us, are you?"

"Unless you give me a firm reason to do so… No."

That finally convinced the cats. They both sighed with relief and left their hideout, then approached the dog, still looking a bit unsure.

"So… I guess we should introduce ourselves, as we've never really talked before…" the black one said after an awkward moment of silence. "I'm Ben," he parodied a bow, "and this is Bart," he pointed to his friend.

"Wow," said Bart, looking at Bolt with admiration. "I mean… I never thought I'll have an opportunity to talk with the Superdog… excluding that time six weeks ago."

"Sorry to disappoint you," Bolt replied, "I'm no longer a Superdog, I'm just an ordinary canine now."

"What you're doing here then?" Ben inquired. "I thought you've come to retake your role…"

"Yes, I think so… I just no longer consider myself to be… super. It's only a show, right?"

"Yeah," Bart was clearly not convinced, "but still… You were awesome when you believed it's real, I can't wait to see you in action, when you'll know why you're doin' what you're doin'…"

Unbeknownst for the trio, someone unnoticed was silently watching whole scene…

* * *

"Finally, we have arrived… at the belly of the beast."

"And here you promised you won't be a lunatic this time," Mittens sighed.

"You just can't act, cat, can you? Why did you set out with me in the first place if you see no fun in our noble quest?" Rhino demanded.

She readied to talk back, but shut her mouth. Arguments with Rhino had no sense.

"Let's go," she motioned her paw in the direction of the studio. "And hope no human catches us in the process…" she added under her breath.

They easily got into one of the enormous buildings… and their jaws dropped at the view of a corridor with a hundred doors on every side.

"Ok, what now, genius?"

"Don't panic cat, you're with me…"

"Taking into consideration what I've been through the last time I heard those words, I don't want to know what's going to happen now…" she murmured.

"We're looking for Bolt," Rhino reasoned, completely unaware of her comment. "And that means we're looking for a place where action takes place!" he exclaimed, proud of his perfect deduction. "And where action is, there's also much noise!"

She had to admit his logical reasoning could be accurate, but left it without a comment, just following after him as the hamster peeked into the loud rooms at random.

* * *

Everything was dark and quiet. Only visible thing was a blurred outline of a chair and a man sitting on it in a hunched position. He leaned his head on his hands, being either asleep or in reverie. After few more moments of silence, a quiet jingle sounded in the room. Simultaneously, a small display lit up high over man's head. Despite its diminutive size, it illuminated big part of the wall it was inputted into and sharpened all visible outlines. The man didn't seem to care, though, sitting still in his inclined position.

In the meantime, bright red digits on the display started to change, starting from zero and going down. When they reached minus ten, the jingle sounded again and a dazzling vertical line appeared on the wall right below the display. A moment later it widened, filling the room with brilliant light, making it impossible to see anything for a moment.

"It is time, professor," a voice with a heavy English accent sounded from the abyss of light. "Everything you demanded has been brought and readied, now the only missing part is a scientist… Shall we then?" he gestured towards the elevator.

Professor didn't move.

"Deactivating Bolt's superpowers, ultimate weaponry, genetic alteration of your cats… When will this end, doctor?" the man was muttering in a hoarse voice, but in the perfect quietness of the room his words were clear. "Are you going to hold me captive for the rest of my life?"

"Do I have to remind you, professor," Calico took a threatening tone, "that I am also incarcerating your precious daughter? I thought we have a deal on this matter."

"And when are you going to release her? Or are you planning to keep her in prison for the rest of her life… or at least mine? That way it's hopeless, my inventions would continuously threaten the world giving me nothing in return…"

"We will deliberate the matter further after the scheduled genetic operation," Calico replied in a commanding tone. "For the time being, let me remind you I can order to pull a certain trigger any second…"

His only answer was a deep, mourning sigh. Nonetheless, the professor rose from his chair. He was moving stiffly and when he looked at the bright light, he immediately squinted, grimacing painfully. Calico let him first into the elevator, smirking evilly at the view of a stubborn scientist being finally broken. His prisoner was hobbling, but the criminal didn't care. The door closed behind them, once more leaving only a thin line of light on the wall, which quickly disappeared when digits on the display started to rise.

For a moment everything was quiet.

"Cut!" along with director's command some lights were turned on. Both actors emerged from the elevator. Every pair of eyes in the room, including both Fishers', rested upon Sean, waiting for his opinion…

"It was great," he said, finally relieving the tension. "Next scene will be shot in fifteen minutes on stage nine."

When the crew started moving indispensible equipment to the indicated stage, the director neared the young actress, her mother and agent.

"Now… I can answer whatever questions you have."

Penny opened her mouth to utter first question, but Arthur cut in first.

"Is that a cat?" he pointed towards the open door of the stage they were on. Everybody looked in that direction to see a black cat, followed by a hamster in a plastic ball.

"Mittens? Rhino…?" Penny bolted out of the room to catch the animals. Both Sean and Arthur looked at Beatrix, unable to say anything, but clearly demanding an explanation.

"If Penny is right… and I believe she is, those were our animals."

"But…" Arthur managed to open his mouth, "don't you live half an hour away from SE? Not to mention, by car?"

"Yes, they must have left right after us… Maybe I forgot to close the door properly?"

"Even though… A dog, I would understand, but a cat… and a hamster, travelling that far? I can't believe it…"

Few seconds later Penny got back, both animals following in her footsteps. That made both the director and agent dumbstruck once again.

"I thought nothing will surprise me after hearing about two animals travelling such distance," Sean stated upon seeing such obedience of the feline and rodent, "and yet you got me again."

"What should we do with them?" Arthur asked. "We can't keep 'em with us during shooting…"

"Why not put them with Bolt on stage five?" Penny proposed.

Everybody agreed.

* * *

_In the meantime…_

"So…" Bolt yawned, stretching his body. "What do you usually do when you're left alone, not needed for shooting?"

"Well…" Ben was in thought for a moment. "Before you escaped YOU were our… or at least MY best entertainment. Since then and until now our whole free time was devoted to running from a damn stupid substitute of yours. Now… actually, we didn't have time to work anything out."

Suddenly, a small shadow left the darkness of the stage's top parts. Loud flapping sounded in the room when the creature descended from those heights and landed right next to the trio. It appeared to be a lean pigeon. Something clicked in Bolt's mind when he saw him, he just couldn't put his paw on it… until the bird spoke.

"Wow, Bolt… There's something, maybe you remember, something I always wanted to tell you if I only got a chance…" he trailed off, seeing large stage door opening slightly. Two small figures entered and the door closed immediately behind their backs. Everyone looked at the newcomers, Bolt froze, mouth agape, staring at them before speaking out…

"Mittens, Rhino? What in the world are you doing here?"

"Ask HIM," sighed Mittens, coming over to them with the hamster.

Ben cleared his throat to catch Bolt's attention.

"Why won't ya introduce us to your sleek friend, Bolt?"

"Sure… let me start from the most recent visitor, this is Billy," he pointed to the pigeon.

"The great Bolt remembered my name!" the bird exclaimed gleefully, but silenced under three menacing cats' glances. "Sorry."

"On with the introduction… those two guys are my fellow actors… Granted, they're another species and another side of the show's conflict, but, as it turns out, they're cool… This is Ben and his rotund friend's name's Bart."

"Hey," the obese cat snapped, slightly – and probably just playfully – irritated.

"Finally, my loyal companions from journey across the world, my best friends and probably closest family I'll ever get… This is Rhino and the beautiful cat here is Mittens."

"However unexpected to come from a dog's mouth, that's undeniably a very accurate statement," Ben smiled semi-seductively at Mittens. Bolt smirked, seeing her blush for the first time since they met.

"If I got you right," Rhino cut in, "you have gathered pretty funny here… Bolt, Bill, Ben and Bart?" he chuckled.

"Yeah, we're like… Fantastic Four B!" Bart joined Rhino's laughing.

"Or rather… fantastic before," Mittens added sarcastically. Everybody burst into laughter.

"What do you think of B-Awesome team?' asked Rhino, when they settled down.

"Hey, that's good… What do you think, Benny?" Bart nudged his companion.

"Penny?" Billy tilted his head in confusion, looking at the two with astonishment. Bart immediately caught at the occasion and started talking in an evil tone, much improved since Bolt's escape.

"Ha! We finally got your precious little Penny, Bolt… And we turned her into a cat, now she's one of our brethren…"

"Hey, Penny is a girl, you can't be her… It'd be disgusting, a male playing a girl?" Rhino interrupted him, looking at both male cats.

"Who's saying I'm Penny? You're looking at the wrong cat, buddy," Ben answered, smiling at Mittens even more seductively than before.

"Hey, don't you even dare to look at here like that, cat!" Bolt screamed, earning two what-the-hell glances from Ben and Bart and one this-isn't-happening from Mittens… Who, by the way, was just experiencing a weirdest inner sensation ever.

The dog endured those looks for a while, then snapped, seeing that they're not going to understand. "Hey, I was acting… aren't we playing such game?" three loud sighs were his only answer. "What, were you all thinking…?"

'_Or was I thinking… that?'_ he thought, suddenly unsure of his own mind.

They were all silent for a moment, after which Rhino charged at the two feline actors with a traditional shriek, resuming the game.

"Die, you barbarous agents of evil! Bolt! I'll hold them off, you save Penny!"

"Why not?" he muttered to himself, smirking at the idea that just popped into his head, then he run up to Mittens. Before she could ask him what was he gonna do, he grabbed her and put her on his back, as if she was unable to walk by her own. She opposed, of course, but stood no chance against a dog his size and strength.

Ben temporarily gained an upper hand in melee fight with Rhino and immediately used the opportunity. "Don't you move!" he yelled after Bolt, who was slowly retreating with Mittens slinging on his back. "The Green Eyed Man rebuilt his machine, that allowed him to drain your powers! Bart, press the button!"

"But… won't there be any victims?" Bart asked.

"Maybe some fried pigeons, but that's even better," replied Ben, making Billy gulp.

"Will do then!" Bart pushed some imaginary button on the floor. Seeing that, Bolt howled and collapsed to the ground, taking on a painful expression.

"Bolt!" Rhino screamed, running over to his beloved hero. "What's wrong?"

"They drained my powers… I'm useless now," Bolt admitted sadly.

"Hey, I know the cure!" Rhino exclaimed joyfully, immediately remembering what happened in eleventh episode of 'Bolt'. "You just need some of this green gas!" he pointed something non-existent.

"I feel my powers coming back!" Bolt laughed, as he rose from the ground, then looked at the hamster seriously and added, "You did it Rhino… You did it. You saved the day… Now, if you'd excuse me, I've got something important to do…"

When he neared the two cats, Ben winced and asked with a slight rhythm in his voice, "Who let that dog out?"

"Who, who, who, who, who?" Bart caught the beat.

"I did!" Rhino exclaimed, standing next to Bolt. "There's no cat that I know that can beat both Bolt and Rhino!"

"Hey!" Bart's eyes lit up. "You're also a live-action poet?"

"It just so happens, cat… But don't thank me for that."

"I wouldn't dream of it, I'd rather throw you in a pit…"

"You'd have to catch me in a trap, but you won't, I'm telling you that!"

"You think you're tough? Be prepared, now it's gonna be rough…"

They went on with a rhyme skirmish. The rest of the animals listened to them for a moment, then moved to another part of the stage, not to interrupt their friends.

"I say, let us go for a trip… I could show you all secrets of this place," this time, Ben's smile was almost lewd. That clearly wasn't right up Mittens' street, as she hissed before answering.

"I may be declawed, buddy, but that doesn't mean I can't bite…" she glanced at Bolt, immediately spotting his reverie. Sighing, she asked, "What is it this time, Bolt?"

"I totally forgot you're declawed… How did you scratch yourself then? Even in a dream?"

Judging by the look, Mittens wanted to tear either Bolt or whole this place to pieces.

"Is whole this dream-and-scratch situation some damn fate's punishment for that I slept with a dog once?!" she screamed.

Ben just goggled at her.

"You did WHAT?"


	5. A stroll down memory lane

**Author's notes**:

If you wish to know something more about the story, you're most welcome to visit my profile - there you can find tons of useful, additional informations about the story.

In the meantime, enjoy reading the story ;)

* * *

**Real life hurts**

by TigressPL

**Chapter 5: A stroll down ****memory line**

Penny woke up late – it was almost nine o'clock, while she was used to getting up at seven. She didn't mind though – it was the last week of holidays and she needed a good sleep after all the events of previous day. After all, getting back to one's favorite work isn't a common situation. Besides, it was Sunday, a day off even in filming industry. She looked at a straight heap of books lying on her bedside table. It was a gift she got from the director yesterday: scenarios of all episodes of "Bolt", printed on a good paper and bound in hard covers. It made a total of seventeen books, the two episodes she didn't star in included in this number. She smiled fondly and decided to read through them today, as she didn't have anything else to do anyway. She reached and grabbed the first one, deciding to give it a go before breakfast. It was a pilot, so she quickly got through the introductory scenes, showing the characters: Bolt, her and her father. She smiled at the scene, where she saw news about a "mad criminal" - doctor Calico - in the TV. Then, after presenting the place she and her father lived in and a fragment about the professor's science genius, the real action started…

_**Penny got back home, trying to relax, but she couldn't. The feeling was too strong. Even Bolt, expressing his joy upon seeing her, couldn't chase her gloom away.**_

"_**Dad?" she called. "Are you home?"**_

"_**Yes, of course," her answer came from the professor's study. "How was it at school, Penny?"**_

"_**Good, thanks," she answered, dropping her backpack and going into the study. "But… there's one thing concerning me."**_

_**When she came in, her father immediately turned from his desk.**_

"_**Sure, what is it?" he asked seriously.**_

"_**It's probably nonsense, but when I was returning from the school, I've seen a dozen of black cars… I felt like I was spied."**_

"_**It was probably only a feeling," he smiled reassuringly.**_

_**She smiled too, then got out of the room. Professor stood up and looked through a window. A black car with darkened windshields stood at the street next to their house. He looked at it for a second, then sighed and sat back at his desk.**_

"_**It's nothing," he muttered, rubbing his temples, "simply a coincidence."**_

_**A sudden sound dragged him out of his reverie. He reached into his pocket and took out a mobile. He answered it.**_

"_**Am I having the pleasure of speaking with Professor Jeremiah Brown? The famous chemist and physicist, constructor of a micro-focusing mirrors satellite system and current co-worker on an 'Understanding animals' operation in Albert Einstein's Research and Development Center?" a voice with heavy English accent asked.**_

"_**Speaking. Who are you, sir? You seem to know a lot of my classified work."**_

"_**My name is doctor Calico. I have a very tempting work offer for a brilliant scientist such as you, professor. You would work with the newest technology… for an adequate emolument, of course."**_

"_**Did you count that I don't read newspapers?" professor answered after a while of silence. "That I don't watch television? I don't think there is a person in America that hasn't heard about the, let me quote today's 'Time': 'most cruel, rich and distraught criminal of XXI century'."**_

"_**Absolutely not! I admire your intelligence, professor, how could I doubt it? So, even though I'm thankful for your assurance about my spreading fame, I don't see any connection of my question and your answer."**_

"_**Maybe I shall put it bluntly then: I will never work for a criminal, doctor."**_

"_**A pity…" Calico sighed. "Thank you for devoting some of your time to me anyway, professor. We will talk again soon…"**_

_**He wanted to talk back, but doctor immediately hanged up. He sighed and once again looked through the window. The black car's engine started and it drove away… But it didn't make him feel any better.**_

Penny quickly read through next scenes, smiling at her memories. Those were the only scenes in whole show where Bolt acted as a normal dog, played with her and so on… This thought brought another memories into her head. Memories that were barely hers, based mostly on what the adults told her about that day later.

_She had been one of the youngest actresses in the filming industry ever, already acting for two years at the age of nine. Miraculously though, she had avoided becoming a spoiled brat – mostly thanks to her mother, Beatrix. She had been completely devoted to her daughter's work – she hadn't had to work otherwise, as Penny's incomes provided the family enough funds. Therefore, Beatrix hadn't only been a mother – she had also been her daughter's manager and chief of personal department, hiring and firing agents if needed. She had also always had the last word on accepting or denying any contract. As if that hadn't been enough, she had always inspected the agents' work, not to let them hurt Penny in any way. She had been like her daughter's guardian angel._

_When Penny's ninth birthday had been nearing, the girl had asked her mum if she could get a dog. She had gotten one of the most popular answers – "I'll think about it". By a total coincidence, not a week after this question, Beatrix had received one of the weirdest offers she'd ever seen. A young director, Sean Tyler, recently hired at Sovereign Entertainment, had visited her in person to present his proposition._

_The plot hadn't been very original – a genetically altered dog with superpowers travelling around the world with his owner and fighting bad guys. The eerie part of the plan – and the one that was going to make it a hit – had been Tyler's idea to make the dog believe he's actually a superdog. To close him in an artificial world, to make him believe he really saves his owner from danger. To achieve this, certain conditions must had been met though. First, the dog had needed to be raised along his owner to make a true, unbreakable bond, so it had required buying a puppy for the actress. Furthermore, she had had to care for the dog, to make him love her too. Then, the dog had needed to be trained. The training had required the dog to be at least one year old and had been going to last three full years. That's why the chosen actress had had to be young – she hadn't been to appear in the show faster than in four years' time since then. For Penny it had clearly been a dream come true._

_The director had looked trustworthy and ambitious, his plan had been clear and he had offered good conditions, so Beatrix had agreed almost immediately. She had demanded only one thing – if Sovereign Entertainment won't agree to launch the show, Penny will be free to keep the dog. They had signed the contract, then Beatrix had called Penny to the room._

And that's were Penny's real memories began.

_She had gotten down to the living room and had seen some unknown guy, talking to her mother. She had been used to it though, her work had made her meet dozens of strangers every day._

"_Hey mum, did you call me?"_

_Beatrix had nodded and laid her out the plot of a new show she had signed her into. After that, the newcomer – _Penny remembered that she liked him at an instant_ – had kneeled in front of her and handed her something. She hadn't looked at it though, as the adult in front of her had kept eye contact._

"_Now," he had said, "I want you to find a dog of your dreams and give him this."_

_She had finally glanced at the item in her hands and hugged the director in an outburst of joy. What she had held was a collar with a name on it. Bolt._

She wiped a small tear. Those were good memories… A week after those events, after visiting a dozen of shelters and kennels, she had finally found the one, a cute white German Shepherd puppy… She glanced at Mr. Carrot, Bolt's favorite chew toy, lying on her bedside table. The orange toy was smiling from ear to ear, so she smiled back and returned to reading. After the idyllic scenes of their common play, action began once more…

_**A clock standing on his desk showed it was well after midnight. Professor sighed and rubbed his eyes to chase sleepiness away. Since Penny's return and Calico's call he had been planning what to do. Many scribbled sheets of paper laid upon his desk, those containing various barely legible sentences, diagrams and formulas.**_

_**He took something off his head and laid it atop the notes. It looked like a monocle having an additional temple to make wearing it easier. In fact, it was an easy-access computer terminal designed by Penny. Like father, like daughter – despite her young age Penny was already a great inventor. The monocle was operated fully by voice, it was composed of the state-of-the-art display and miniature microphones. Whole software was stored on a USB flash drive, all it needed was an access to Internet or files on the computer, depending on where the information were to be found.**_

"_**Thankfully we've gone through most tests already," he muttered to himself. "And I really have to do this, tomorrow may be too late."**_

_**He stood silent for a while.**_

"_**I just hope everything will be fine," he sighed once more, then left the room.**_

_**He didn't have to go far, Penny's room was adjacent to his study. He opened the door quietly, letting a beam of light fall inside. He looked affectionately at his daughter, sleeping sound with Bolt. He took the dog into his arms and left the room. In the meantime Bolt awoke, so professor put him on the floor and ordered him to follow. They left the house and got into the professor's car.**_

_*******_

_**Einstein's Research and Development Center was a big, modern building, made typically of steel and glass. It was placed near city center, but still quite far away from the most cramped parts. It was thoroughly dark and quiet now, as all scientists working here left for a weekend - exceptional job granted special working conditions. Even though, professor met no problems with coming inside. Parking's gates opened when he came, as their computer sensors caught signal of a special transmitter implanted into his car. Coming into the building itself required him to type a security code on the door and use his pass card. As he walked through the corridors with Bolt, lamps over their heads turned on, only to darken again after they have passed.**_

_**Finally, the professor opened one of the multitudinous doors and came into quite big laboratory. All the devices started to turn on, twinkling with a myriad of diodes and displays. He ordered Bolt to stay, then changed into a lab coat and started hustling about, readying everything to the operation he planned.**_

_**After half an hour, his preparations were complete. He looked about the laboratory once more, trying to remember anything he could forgot, but everything seemed to be well taken care of. Further delay was pointless, so he opened the door to a big metal chamber, biggest thing in whole this laboratory. Bolt came in hesitantly, then looked about the weird place he has been placed in. In the meantime, professor started clicking various buttons on the consoles. Door closed behind Bolt and several lamp-like appliances neared him, letting out golden sparks, which soon combined to fill whole the container with brilliant lightning bolts, hitting Bolt every now and then, yet causing no pain. Jeremiah watched several displays gathering information about the object of alternation, flashing various anatomical details of Bolt's body. After all the data had been collected, the readings started to change as genetic alternation of the dog proceeded.**_

_**The final step of the alteration was marking Bolt's side with a black lightning mark. Then, the machines turned down. After a while, professor released Bolt from the chamber. The dog looked normally, expression on his face being the only indicator of deep changes that has taken place in his organism.**_

"_**Good boy," Jeremiah petted Bolt."We did it..."**_

"_**Indeed. You did," a new voice, coming from the entrance to laboratory, cut in. Professor raised his head and looked at four men standing in the door. They were dressed in identical black uniforms with yellow markings. "Now," the tallest of them spoke once more, "give up and come with us."**_

"_**Never! I have a genetically altered dog here, he'll kill you if you do as much as try to touch me… Bolt…! Sic them!"**_

_**Bolt looked at his owner quizzically.**_

"_**Attack!" Jeremiah ordered once more. Bolt's only reaction was cocking his head. Professor sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "We'll have to do this in the old way…" he suddenly jumped at the attackers, knocking them over like a bunch of bowling pins. "Bolt, heel!" he yelled, dashing down the corridor. Bolt followed obediently. They went through the corridors so quickly, that the lamps usually lit up after they have left the section they should illuminate. There were no signs of pursuit, but professor didn't look back. He ran frantically towards his car, then quickly let Bolt inside, jumped onto the driver's seat and turned on the engine. Soon, the RD Center started to diminish behind his car, fading in the distance. He wanted to sigh with relief, but the sound decided to stay in his throat when a loud explosion sounded in the distance. He glanced into the mirror and froze in horror.**_

_**Einstein's RD Center was history.**_

_**Sudden ringing of his mobile almost caused him to have a heart attack. He answered nervously.**_

"_**I am still just kindly proposing to join me, professor," a certain voice with heavy English accent sounded in the receiver. "Don't make me threaten you. We will discuss my proposition again tomorrow in the afternoon, shall we?" with that, Calico hanged up.**_

That was the end of the pilot, end of the very first episode of "Bolt". She remembered that Sovereign Entertainment's acceptation didn't make Sean calm, on the contrary: he was a bundle of nerves. Everybody from his team understood the reasons of such behavior: he invested five years of intense work and money to train Bolt, to ensure success… That's why first serious celebration hadn't take place until after third episode of "Bolt" had jumped onto the rankings and settled there comfortably, becoming the best one for a long time.

Penny yawned and stretched, putting the book aside. It was about time to get something to eat.

* * *

In the same time, Beatrix and the trio of animals were enjoying a stroll towards a small lake, about a kilometer away from their house. In a more inhabited area they would probably get much attention – sight of a cat and a hamster following their owner was really weird. Thankfully, they lived in the hinterlands, lack of privacy was the last thing they could complain at here.

Mittens went alongside Beatrix on the front, while Bolt and Rhino followed a few steps behind. The quiet atmosphere was thought-provoking. Bolt unwittingly stared at Mittens, thinking about the eeriness of their relationship.

'_I like Mittens. That's normal, considering what we've been through together, what she's taught me. But I like Rhino too, yet… Every time I think about it, Mittens is… special. Seeing her arouses emotions. Why is it so?'_

Trying to come up with an answer, he lost his connection with reality. Hearing Rhino saying something to him, he reluctantly devoted part of his mind to understand the words. Nonetheless, most of his attention was still at the black cat in front of him.

"…she had an award-winning dog, a really beautiful Dalmatian…" was all Bolt understood from Rhino's story.

"Really? What color was she?" he asked to pretend he's been at least listening.

The hamster didn't answer, instead just looking at the absent-minded dog. He smirked and suddenly yelled, "Bolt!"

He caught the dog off-guard, causing him to literally shake his reverie off. Bolt looked at him expectantly.

"Gee, Bolt, I haven't seen you so deep in thought yet," he laughed. "You seemed to stare at Mittens as if you had been wondering how to court her… As if you've fallen in love with Mittens!" Rhino was laughing his head off.

'_Did I?' _instead of answering, Bolt could just think about it. _'Is THIS a reason for all those feelings I had? Is this even possible for a dog to fall for a cat…?'_

Calming down a little, Rhino glanced at Bolt, expecting to see him laughing too… Instead he saw the dog look at Mittens again, back in his train of though. He cleared his throat to catch Bolt's attention once more and demanded, "Bolt… Tell me it's a joke. That you have not just confirmed you love Mittens."

"I… I can't. I just… I don't know what's-" he started answering in vain.

"Okay," Rhino interrupted, raising his finger. "I want you to confirm you're aware of two simple facts. First: you're a dog. Second: she's a cat. Third: this is abnormal!"

"That makes a total of three facts," Bolt answered, trying to steer clear of the topic.

"Confirm it!" Rhino demanded once more.

"Yes, I know perfectly well what species do we represent and I understand what you're implying. I can't explain it though."

"It's unnecessary. For a moment I feared you lost your mind," Rhino answered calmly. "How are you going to tell her?"

Straightforwardness of the question and simple realization of the fact it's even possible surprised Bolt greatly, making him stumble. He quickly stood up and caught up with Rhino.

"You ARE going to tell her, aren't you?" the rodent demanded once more.

"Of course not and you're not to do so either! She wouldn't understand-"

"Would you?"

The accurateness of the remark made Bolt shut up. He tried to answer, but no sound left his open mouth. Silence lasted for a few minutes, finally Rhino understood Bolt wasn't going to say anything.

"I won't tell her," he promised. "But I think you should," he added sternly.

* * *

Having eaten breakfast, Penny wanted to walk Bolt, but he wasn't around. A quick inspection of the house ensured her no one was present.

'_They must have gone out without me when I was still sleeping,' _she thought.

She didn't like the idea of going out alone, so she decided to sit in her room and read on until her family will be back. She eagerly opened the second scenario book.

_**Penny was sitting in a park with Bolt, enjoying a short break in their stroll, when her mobile rang.**_

"_**Hello?" she answered.**_

"_**Penny… I don't have much time…" a her father's concerned voice sounded in the receiver.**_

"_**Daddy…? Are you okay?"**_

"_**Something's… come up at work, honey. Daddy's not gonna be home for a while."**_

"_**I don't understand…" she admitted.**_

" _**You can't go back to the house, okay?"**_

"_**What's happening?"**_

"_**It's alright, you won't be alone… You have Bolt. I've altered him. He can protect you now."**_

"_**But how?" she asked, now seriously confused. Unfortunately, the mobile hanged up in the very moment.**_

_**She petted Bolt in reverie, trying to piece something from the scratched information she just got.**_

"_**Dad was home when we left," she muttered to herself. "He wasn't at work, so why did he say 'something's come up AT WORK'? We have to check it out. Bolt, come on!" she said, standing up and grabbing her scooter. Bolt looked at her accusingly. "Hey, he said we can't go back to the house, but I won't come in, I only want to look at it, okay?" the dog jumped down from the bench, expressing his obedience. They rushed back towards their home.**_

_*******_

_**The Browns' house was burning. Three men leaving it were barely recognizable due to the brilliant light behind them. After a while, they moved away from the fire and became distinguishable. Two men in black, having characteristic yellow signs on their helmets, held resigned professor Brown. They dragged him towards a street, to a helicopter surrounded by a group of people, mostly soldiers dressed identically to the two. The only one not wearing a uniform, a tall man in suit, stepped forward. He would probably look like a respectable businessman without his thoroughly green right eye. That eye made him look like a criminal in a flash.**_

"_**Ah, professor," he spoke to his prisoner. "It's such a pleasure to finally meet you in person."**_

"_**I'm sorry, doctor, but I can't reciprocate the compliment," Jeremiah answered bitterly.**_

_**Calico didn't respond, instead ordering the men holding professor to walk inside with him, then pointed another two and commanded, "Guard the house. Young lady Brown will probably come back soon. Invite her politely to join her father, we don't want too much publicity… Besides, she may come in handy if our friend would ever try to put his foot down. I want her alive, understood?"**_

_**The soldiers saluted to confirm. Calico boarded the copter and flew away with rest of his minions, leaving only the selected two behind.**_

_*******_

_**Hidden behind a hedge, a certain pair had heard and seen everything that happened. When the copter left, Penny whispered, "We need to get to the house quickly and grab some items before they burn, so we must beat the living daylights out of those two. Dad said you can protect me, Bolt, so… Go get them!"**_

_**The dog didn't react, just cocking his head at his owner. Penny sighed, "I'll have to teach you this otherwise. But I don't have a weapon…"**_

_**She reached into her backpack and took out her scooter. Collapsed, it wasn't bigger than a bottle of Coke. She inspected it in reverie, thinking about the day she got it from her father…**_

"_**It's made of titanium, an extremely light and tough metal," he had described it, while showing her how to collapse and unfold it. "Moreover, you can divide it into parts and piece otherwise. I have no idea how that certain fact may prove itself useful," he had admitted, laughing, "but I'm sure you'll come up with something. You're so creative girl…"**_

_**She suddenly smiled, as a good idea popped into her head. She unscrewed the part connecting handle bar to the front wheel. She unfolded it to its maximal possible length.**_

"_**Now, that's better than a baseball bat. Still, it needs something more to be **_**really **_**effectual."**_

_**She added one of the wheels to the construction, thus creating something between a metal stick and a mace.**_

"_**You ready, Bolt?" she asked the dog, then added, "Heel!"**_

_**They jumped through the hedge. Penny ran over to one of the minions and hit him in the back of his helmet with her new weapon before he could do anything else. Strength of the impact didn't stop on the helmet, so he collapsed to the ground, unconscious. The second soldier caught Penny's wrist, making her drop the bat. She screamed and that's probably what made Bolt join the struggle. He caught the man's ankle and pulled him a step back, making him fall down, then suddenly pulled harder, sending him flying over the house…**_

"_**Wow," Penny soughed. She knew there was no time for astonishment now though, so she jumped into the burning house. Seeing that, Bolt was about to do the same, but before he reached the entrance, Penny was already back, mostly intact. "Dad thought about everything," she said with gratitude, looking at the items in her hands: a laptop, two bundles of hundred-dollar bills, her easy-access monocle and some other gadgets. She packed them and all the parts of her scooter into her backpack.**_

_**That's when she spotted a black car with darkened windshields, driving in their direction.**_

"_**Bolt! We gotta go!" she screamed, grabbing her backpack and dashed away with Bolt hot on her heels.**_

The rest of second episode was focused on Bolt's training, the adventure of discovering his powers. By the end of this episode Bolt could run at an incredible pace, known various attack techniques and reacted properly to new commands. Those powers finally started the show's main theme. They were limited in comparison to the ones, available to Bolt after some more episodes – even though, they made "Bolt" jump higher in rankings immediately.

One could ask, how did the producers manage to learn Bolt all the other powers – superbark and so on – in few weeks. And why did the basic training took so long? The answer was simple.

Beginning from his puppyhood, Bolt was trained almost every day. His main trainer was Carl Blake, a young, innovative animal psychologist. He was a first member of Tyler's crew, without him the show would have no chance to appear on screen.

Bolt's training sessions gradually ensured him he possessed superpowers. As time passed, bars bent more easily, training dummies were loosely attached to the ground and made of softer material, running tracks ran slower, superbark's effects grew in number and metals started to give in more easily to the heat vision. Bolt learnt that he's mostly invincible, that there's nothing he should fear… and that whatever happens, his main goal is ensuring the safety of his person, Penny. There was also one more aspect of the training: sometimes Blake injected Bolt some water. After that, all the training utilities temporary stopped giving in to Bolt, making him feel as if he lost his powers.

After three years of training, Bolt needed such injection every time he left the training hall. After four, Penny lost possibility of taking him home, because "Bolt needed to stop losing his powers every day, as it could affect his mind in an unwanted way". The scientist kept his word – Bolt hadn't been injected until the start of filming process.

* * *

They were about a hundred meters from the lake they were headed to, but Bolt wasn't aware of this, still pondering over the real inferno of thoughts and ideas that awoke during his short conversation with Rhino. Currently, he'd been daydreaming about his first encounter with Mittens.

'…_though she must have been scared to death when I pinned her. One could say, I literally bolted from the blue,' _he chuckled at the pun. _'And her talking with those pigeons! Wait a moment, what were they saying? »You got her, pal!«, »That's herl!«, »She's the one!«, »That is definitely the right cat!«… They didn't mean that, but taking into consideration what I'm feeling now… Could they be foreshadowing the future? Even unknowingly? That would be strange, but impossible? Mittens is beginning to convince me nothing is impossible, I mean… if you scratch yourself while sleeping without moving your real paw… What's more, when you got no claws… The word impossible starts to lose its base meaning, doesn't it? That's kinda ironic though, I believed I had superpowers, she made me understand it's otherwise. And now she's the one to make me believe everything's possible. But wha-'_

"Bolt, duck!" Mittens' voice managed to break through his reverie. He obeyed and momentarily collapsed to the ground, simultaneously trying to find out what's going on.

"Quack," someone in front of him said. He raised his eyes. A duck. "Watch your steps, buddy," the bird said and started waddling towards the lake.

"Gee, Bolt, since when do you sleep during walks?" Mittens asked, laughing.

"I think I know," Rhino muttered, rolling behind Bolt. He pushed the dog towards Mittens quasi-unintentionally, then receded.

"What's wrong with that rodent?" Mittens smirked. "Too much light focusing on him through this plastic ball?"

"Yeah, maybe," Bolt agreed, relieved that he avoided explaining her what was Rhino's real intention.

* * *

"Let's move on with this," Penny said to herself, reaching for a next scenario.

_**During Bolt's training he and Penny spent most time in forests to avoid publicity. They ate and slept in motels – they could afford better conditions with the money left by Jeremiah, but Penny feared Calico's minions will be guarding good hotels. For those few days they had only encountered those soldiers once, seeing them driving in a black car on a road nearby the motel they stayed in at the time being.**_

_**Penny had no idea as to what should they do further. The only thing that kept her from falling into depression after the traumatic events she'd been through was training Bolt. Have she not worked so hard, she would probably completely break down. She had no possibility to find Calico and she knew engaging police would be of no use, whole world was searching for the vile gangster.**_

_**Every day they went from motel to forest, passing a huge billboard advertising this year's Olympic Games. This day was no exception. Penny looked at the advert blankly, when suddenly something struck her. All those athletic sportsmen had a simple yellow symbol on their suits. The symbol that Penny saw on the memorable day when her father had been kidnapped. Huge letters on the billboard read: 'CLC International, sponsor of America's national team'. Suddenly, the three facts had pieced together: doctor Calico, a famous criminal kidnapped her dad. His minions had the same emblem on their uniforms as those sportsmen have. And 'CLC' was quite easy to see through. The only question that remained was: what was he sponsoring America's Olympic Team for?**_

"_**Bolt… I think we need to go to China."**_

Getting into China was easy, thanks to the money, left by her father. The Olympics were to begin in two days' time, so all the sportsmen's quarters were already inhabited and guarded by a police squad. They managed to sneak by them, hoping to find Calico – or just some indication as to where could he had been then. Instead, they discovered something else…

_**Seeing no one around, they scooted into the building. They were certain it's the right one, the American flags in front of it being an undeniable proof. Luckily, the door was open, so they got inside without any problem.**_

_**They found themselves in a spacious hall, furnished in an old manner. Whole floor was covered by a thick, soft carpet with oriental patterns. The hall was as high as the building, so if anyone came out of one of the rooms on the first floor, they would have nowhere to hide.**_

"_**Let's find out as much as we can without getting caught," Penny instructed Bolt. He clearly didn't understand a word, so she used the command she's taught him during the last few days, "Stealth mode."**_

_**This time, he understood and quietly trotted over to one of the door accessible from the hall they were in. She didn't follow him; he proved to be extremely smart for a dog during last few days and she'd trusted him even before her father altered him… She was sure he'll notice when something's not right or requires her attention for another reason and let her know about it.**_

_**They found nothing on the ground level, so they went up the wide stairs. Now they heard something, indistinct voice coming from behind a half-closed door on the left. They started in that direction, more carefully though, as there was no carpet to silence their steps this time.**_

"_**Your victory will assure me gargantuan amounts of money from the bets and liquidate any possible future problems with funds," this time the speaker's voice was clear. It had a heavy English accent.**_

_**Penny pushed the door a little, she saw the back of a tall man in an elegant suit. She was almost sure it was the criminal they were looking for, but she needed to find out who else is inside. Dealing with several Calico's minions at once would be impossible for Bolt, he had no experience in real fights…**_

"_**Good. You'll get your money, we'll get our chance, our money and fame… Well, WE won't be famous, but it should be a great feeling anyway," another voice answered.**_

_**Penny opened the door a little more. Now she was able to see who Calico was talking with – a tall, athletic man, famous American sportsman. Something wasn't right though, as he only had one arm. The second had been screwed as the moment. It wasn't normal…**_

"_**It's kinda ironic though," the man screwing his hand continued. "We're stealing them their names and faces but in return we'll bring fame and fortune upon them, perhaps we'll even beat some records for them… And they will be not two hundred meters further, locked in a basement…"**_

"_**Indeed, ironic," Calico agreed, clearly not eager to join the discussion on this topic.**_

"_**So… where are you going now? Back to that Atlantic oilrig of yours? Near that silly named town… Antofagasta? Man, it's like… Aunt of a gangsta!" he burst out laughing.**_

"_**How does it feel to have so much artificial body parts?" Calico asked, evidently wanting to change the topic.**_

"_**Quite normal," he answered. "I'm almost forgetting they're artificial. Ain't I right, Mike? Joe?"**_

"_**Yeah, right," two other men answered.**_

_**Penny opened the door a bit further to see how much more of them were inside.**_

"_**Hey!" the nearest of the sportsmen screamed, catching sight of her. "Whatcha doin' here?"**_

_**Calico turned to see who is he talking about. "I think I know you," he smiled. "You would be my dearest professor's daughter, Penny… I thought I will have to hunt for you, but look! I didn't even have to ask, you came all by yourself," suddenly dropping his cheery voice, he added, "Get her."**_

"_**Bolt!"**_

_**He obediently stepped forward, growling menacingly at the two men.**_

"_**Oh, you brought a dog to save you? How pathetic…" Calico motioned to somebody invisible for them and in a second at least ten famous American sportsmen, all of them heavily muscled, emerged from the depths of the room.**_

_**Penny gasped, "Oh boy… Bolt! We gotta run!"**_

_**He obeyed and soon they were in a mad dash towards the stairs. When they reached them, Penny looked at the door to the room they escaped. Two men came out, acknowledged their position and… jumped a few meters forward, falling on their feet with no sign of pain or exertion on their faces. They did only one mistake. There were only two of them.**_

"_**Sic 'em, boy!"**_

_**Bolt jumped forward, ready to pounce on one of the athletes, but they were fast too. The closer one immediately caught him by the scruff of his neck and lifted from the ground. Bolt contorted his head and bit the man's forearm strongly. A loud clang could be heard and Bolt looked at the place he bit curiously. Part of the artificial skin tore and metal mechanism showed up from inside.**_

"_**Another cyborg?!" Penny exclaimed in shock, then looked up. Other pseudo-sportsmen stood on the first floor and watched the fight.**_

_**Man holding Bolt decided to slam him into ground. Force of the impact would probably kill another dog, but Bolt barely felt it. Seeing the other man reaching to grab him again, he dived between his legs, jumped onto his back and bit the back of his neck. That part of his body had to be real, because the bitten screamed in pain and bent forward. Bolt used the opportunity and jumped from his back at the second opponent, smashing him in the forehead with his own head. The only difference was that Bolt didn't feel pain after the strike.**_

"_**What are you all looking at, morons?!" Calico screamed, pushing the nearest man down over the railing. "Get her!"**_

_**Meanwhile, Bolt caught the man he hit by his ankle and knocked him down, then twisted him around, slamming him into the other one and let both of them fall out through the entrance door. He looked at Penny, immediately taking in the danger. He dashed at his full speed and rammed into the legs of a cyborg, nearing her from behind, easily bringing him down.**_

"_**Run!" Penny screamed, dashing outside with Bolt hot on her heels. Several police officers were already surrounding the house in a few meters radius and more were coming – Olympics were guarded well. Penny stopped, unable to break through the cordon. She glanced at the beaten opponents. Breaking through the thick wood and crash landing on a street tore much of the skins from their artificial body parts, now it was clear that they weren't humans.**_

"_**They are cyborgs!" Penny called, pointing to the duo. "All of them, whole America's national team, it's doctor Calico's job! He's inside too!"**_

"_**Calm down, girl," one of the policemen stepped forward, while two others examined Bolt's victims. "How do you know about this?"**_

"_**I heard him talking about it!" she answered, using the opportunity to sneak out of the police circle through a place left free. "The real sportsmen are locked in the basement!" she screamed without stopping.**_

"_**Should we chase her?" one of the policemen asked.**_

"_**Nah… she's just a girl, she's probably scared to death by the view. By the way, how did she beat those two?"**_

_**Behind his back some other cops could be seen, leading the world famous athletes in handcuffs.**_


	6. Fight with all your might

**Author's notes**:

This chapter needs a few words of commentary from me. First off, I'm most relieved to finally have finished it, I've been writing it for over two months due to several breaks.

Thanks to the invaluable help of **Rain Crow**, I believe I managed to improve the dialog quality. I'm really proud of the Bolt-Rhino conversation.

Also, I'm sorry for the disproportion of chapters' length - this one is over twice as long as the first... and yet next chapter will probably be even longer. On the other hand, I think it's be a good way to thank you for your patience.

This is the second of - most probably - five chapters introducing the whole "Bolt" series' scenarios.

Also, please, visit my forum at http:// www. fanfiction. net/myforums/TigressPL/1796179/ - there's a FFnet fans' program project running.

If you wish to know something more about the story, you're most welcome to visit my profile - there you can find tons of useful, additional informations about the story.

In the meantime, enjoy reading the story ;)

* * *

**Real life hurts**

by TigressPL

**Chapter 6: Fight with all your might**

It was already past eleven o'clock and Beatrix hadn't returned from the walk with all the animals yet. That didn't bother Penny, she knew her mother was keen on having long walks. Nonetheless, she decided to lie in living room to hear them coming back instantly.

"Three done, fourteen to go," she said, getting into a comfortable position on a couch with the fourth episode's scenario in her hands. "Man, they seem so short when you read 'em. Yet, every single one has forty minutes on screen… And took two weeks to make. Gee, it's barely eight months since they started shooting the series and almost six years since I got Bolt…"

Against her will, her mind produced a nagging thought concerning Bolt's life expectancy. Her smile faded, but she fought to keep her positive attitude.

"It is still several years, Bolt is very strong and active," she said aloud to reassure herself. It helped her a bit, so she quickly opened the fourth volume to focus her mind on reading instead of such unwanted thoughts.

_**They were at the Beijing Capital International Airport. Bolt was sitting patiently near one of the passenger seats while Penny stood in line for plane tickets.**_

"_**I guess we're gonna travel by those a lot," she muttered. In the airport's noise no one could hear her, even in the dense queue. "Let's make it easier then," she decided, reaching into her backpack and taking a small USB device out. When she neared the clerk, she kneeled, seemingly to lace her shoe. Instead, she quickly put the device in the back of his computer and stood back up. She bought the tickets without problems and got back to Bolt. She opened her laptop and started typing something on the keyboard.**_

"_**Yes! I've broken into their database," she announced happily after a few minutes. "Let's transfer it, this way we should always be able to check plane availability on the way. I'll just integrate it with the Monocle…" she trailed off. For a long while the only audible sound was her hectic typing. "Okay," she finally said. "One last thing to do. I'll need a way to update the data about changed and delayed flights… A simple RSS feed based on that info should do."**_

_**Having completed this task, she closed the laptop and went towards the gates with Bolt.**_

With hubs in New York and Santiago they reached Cerro Moreno International Airport in Antofagasta almost effortlessly. There, Penny bought herself a full diving equipment and rented a speedboat. While quarreling with various clerks to trust her despite her young age, she discovered acting (or maybe trading) skills she never supposed to have. As a result, she managed to rent a speedboat for a few hours despite the fact that she hadn't come of age yet. The bail she paid probably exceeded the boat's value by far, but she knew that was still much better than buying a new one. Besides, she supposed they won't probably come back to that city, especially with the boat, so the deal was at least fair. Her last purchase was a waterproof bag to hold her swimming gear together. The only thing left to do was to gather information about nearest rigs. She achieved that aim, coming across a polite, English-speaking sailor in the port. Having completed the last task, the duo was ready to try and breach Calico's platform's securities.

_**Finding the platform wasn't a problem at all. Calico was either stupid or immensely self-confident. As the result of that, all his facilities had the same eye-like yellow symbol, which Penny had seen on his minions' and cyborgs' suits.**_

_**Even though they found the correct rig however, it seemed they could do nothing more. The closest place for a man to stand was almost 30 meters above the water level. There was only one way to get there – by climbing vertical, metal bars.**_

"_**It's impossible," Penny sat down in the boat, depression taking over her. "To get there we would need a helicopter, but renting a helicopter is not as easy as renting a boat, save alone piloting it… Oh Bolt," she hugged the dog tightly as he neared her, concerned look on his face. "What will we do?"**_

_**Bolt couldn't answer, but he offered all he had, whole his affection. It proved to be enough as after a moment Penny calmed down and began looking through her stuff.**_

"_**Maybe we are just a dog and a girl, but we still can bite, can't we? We'll find a way…" she suddenly smiled, taking out her currently assembled scooter. A crazy thought entered her head. Once more, she unscrewed the part connecting the handle with the stand. She folded and unfolded it a few times, thinking her idea over. After a while, she added a wheel on each side of the bar.**_

"_**Well, there is only one way to test if this… wheelbar is going to work properly," she said, looking at her "invention" thoughtfully. She carefully moved the boat towards the metal construction. When she was close enough to reach it, she placed her new tool between two closest metal bars and unfolded it as far as she could. She tried to pull the wheelbar down, but it was attached firmly. Happy with the first test, she hesitantly hanged on it. It still didn't give in. Completely satisfied with the result, she jumped back onto the boat, folded the wheelbar and started working on a final detail. After ten minutes it was finished – there were buttons to control wheels' movement embedded in the handle.**_

_**This time – after attaching the wheelbar to the bars and checking its firmness once more – she put her backpack on and – not without difficulties – convinced Bolt to sit in the bag with diving equipment. She sighed, suddenly understanding that she will only have one hand to hold the wheelbar.**_

"_**It better be quick," she muttered, grabbing the handle.**_

_**Fortunately, the journey was short enough for her to endure holding combined weights of her and Bolt with one hand. She stopped upon reaching the first platform she'd met while ascending. Bolt immediately jumped out of the bag and quietly rushed forward, climbing onto the main level. She folded the wheelbar and hid it into her backpack before following him. They reached the top of the rig without problems and immediately started to investigate their new surroundings. Save the normal equipment one would expect to find in such place, there were also several large, metal containers. Upon closer looking, though, they looked a tad atypical, having doors, sometimes even windows implanted in their walls.**_

"_**They must be using these boxes as a form of easy transportable quarters," Penny concluded. "Original idea, I must admit."**_

_**Before the duo could think about their next action, they heard two voices nearing them. They silently hid behind some oil barrels to avoid detection.**_

"_**Did Calico say when is he gonna be back from China?" one of the closing voices asked. Penny leaned from behind the barrels to see two Calico's minions, walking across the platform. They were wearing no helmets, probably because nothing threatened them here.**_

"_**No, why?" one of them responded and shrugged. "When he's not around we got nothing to do, so I'm not really looking forward to his return."**_

"_**Yeah, but it's plainly boring then," the other sighed, shaking his head. "Come on, let's go and watch TV, maybe there will be some news about our »National Team's« successes," he proposed, motioning towards one of the several containers.**_

_**When they were almost there, his companion spoke up. "I wonder what are those guys in Lama-" the voice was suddenly cut short, as the two soldiers closed the door behind themselves.**_

"_**Hell, it was so close!" Penny cursed, standing up. "We'll have to get our information by force," she motioned to Bolt to follow her and trotted over to the door the soldiers had entered. "Okay… Just don't kill them, we need those information," she instructed Bolt, then silently opened the door and looked around the room. The soldiers were sitting in comfortable armchairs, watching some news program.**_

"_**Yesterday, the police has caught a group of men with mechanical limbs," a news anchor's voice emitted from the speakers. "Their faces were deformed and covered with artificial skin to resemble those of America's National Team. Fortunately, the real sportsmen have been caught by the criminals less than two days earlier. The police has found them unconscious and tied up in the basement of the USA National Team's building. In today's interviews all of our representatives confirmed that they will participate in the Olympic Games nonetheless. The police suspects the criminals had some leader, but **__**personality of this perpetrator remains unknown-"**_

"_**WHAT?!" Penny screamed. She left Calico practically in the police's hands, how could he escape? How was it possible no one gave him away?**_

_**The minions turned, hearing her sudden outburst, but before any of them had a chance to react, Bolt appeared between them. He caught one of them by an ankle and slammed him into the other man, sending them flying through the room along with the armchair. In the moment they smacked the wall, he jumped onto them, smacking their heads together, leaving them both unconscious.**_

"_**Well, they won't tell us anything anytime soon…" Penny sighed, investigating the room. She spotted a large world map, dotted with colorful tacks. "I wonder what does this mean," she muttered, looking at red tacks in USA, Korea, China, Canada, France, India and a large group of them over Pakistan, Iraq and Iran. After that, she started checking the positions of green tacks. She found one over Antofagasta and a group of them over Europe. She identified one of them to point London, but before she could deliberate over the others, something else caught her attention, namely a mechanical door with a red LED display over them. She hadn't noticed them before because they barely differed from the metal walls of the container they were in. The LED lit up and started showing rapidly growing numbers. When they reached zero, the door opened. All this happened too fast for Bolt and Penny to hide or react in any other way. The elevator's door opened, letting out six soldiers. They didn't waste time and soon, with a gun's muzzle near Penny's head, both she and Bolt were forced to give up.**_

_*******_

_**Soldiers closed the "wretched spies" in a 2 meters high metal cube. Judging by the look, its walls must have been at least one foot thick. Next thing Bolt and Penny felt was a moment of weightlessness, then a hard impact, probably when the cube made contact with the water surface – the soldiers must have decided to sink them.**_

_**Penny wasn't a type of a person to give up easily. She took out all her stuff and started pondering over how to use any of the items she possessed. Unfortunately, she found nothing she could use in the given situation. Her only idea was using the wheelbar to crowbar the entrance of their prison, but all her efforts were in vain.**_

"_**Maybe you should try," she said to Bolt, moving aside. He looked at his target for a moment, then dashed forward, lowered his head, readying for the impact and hit the wall hard. It deformed a bit, but remained consistent. He shook his head and got back to his position. This time he eyed the target a bit longer. Suddenly, he stopped and cocked his head in confusion. Penny followed his glance to see that metal in the place Bolt previously hit became red hot. For some reason, it was melting.**_

"_**Wow," Penny gasped with awe. "Now that's a power, do it again!" she cheered. Bolt started to stare onto the hatch once more…**_

"_**Bolt! Wait!" Penny suddenly stopped him. They were underwater, she needed to put on her diving equipment. Having done that, she put her backpack into the waterproof bag and raised a thumb. "OK, Bolt. Stare!" she commanded.**_

_**He obeyed and returned his gaze to the entrance. This time though, he focused even harder. The effect was incredible. His eyes began to glow green… Suddenly, two laser beams shot from them. Bolt cut a circle in the wall and closed his eyes, blocking the lasers. Penny could only look at the scene, mouth agape. She needed a few seconds to snap from the shock.**_

"_**Now you're talking! Um… looking. Whatever," she tried to push the cut out circle out. After a few tries, she understood that she had no chance to push it. Instead, she looked at Bolt and simply pointed it. He rammed into the obstacle with his head once more, this time easily pushing the cut out piece away. The water started flooding the container rapidly. Penny and Bolt swam out and started ascending. Penny looked around, immediately spotting something… The rig stood at the very bottom of the ocean shelf, but it wasn't a simple metal construction one would expect. Instead, about fifty meters under water's surface it spread, forming a submarine building, resembling a space research station.**_

_**The duo swam over to it and managed to get inside through a door, designed for divers. After passing through the anti-flood lock, they found themselves in an empty corridor, extending to both sides. Penny took her diving equipment off and put it back into the bag. She looked left and right, but seeing no indication of any direction being the right one, she shrugged and motioned to the left.**_

"_**That way," she said.**_

_*******_

_**Four men were sitting in a mid-sized room, playing Scrabble. The room was furnished in a Spartan way - save the table and chairs the men were using, all the furniture consisted of an old TV on another table.**_

"_**And so, I have 'discombobulation' with times 3 bonus, which gives me a total of…" one of the minions said, pausing to count the points.**_

"_**Hem, may I have your attention, gentlemen?" someone asked.**_

"_**Wait a second, I'll just count it…" the man answered, still leaning over the board and counting his score.**_

"_**Very well, you may consider yourself fired," the minion looked around in disbelief. The speaker was doctor Calico, connecting with them via the TV. "As for the rest of you…" he paused, either for a dramatic effect or to collect his thoughts. He was shirtless, dressed barely in pink trousers and astronaut's helmet-**_

"Say what?!" Penny rubbed her eyes, but the text didn't change. She noticed a small asterisk next to it and it's explanation below: _'The sentence was originally written by S. Tyler after celebration party of »Bolt« episode 3 success, later deleted'_.

"Very funny, indeed," she snapped. Then, as she tried to imagine Calico in such costume, she instantly burst into laughter.

"_**It seems that our professor has a very moralistic**__**attitude and he won't help us unless we convince him with some strong arguments," Calico continued. "Fortunately, I have come across one in China. Now our most important mission is to capture professor's daughter. I'm sending this message to all of my forces, but you are most likely to meet her, as she probably eavesdropped a conversation about the Antofagasta base. You can see her photo on the screen now," image on the TV changed to show Penny's picture. "She travels with a white dog, resembling a German Shepherd. Watch out, he is incredibly strong-"**_

"_**Um, sir," one of the minions dared to interrupt. "We caught such girl and dog, sneaking on the platform."**_

"_**Gorgeous!" Calico exclaimed, raising his hands. "Where are they now?"**_

"_**On… the bottom of the sea?" the henchman answered hesitantly, almost cowardly.**_

"_**WHAT?!"**_

_*******_

_**Penny and Bolt were sneaking through the base, searching for any valuable information. Glancing through one of the windows, Penny spotted three divers swimming in the direction of the sunk metal cube she had been imprisoned in with Bolt. She shrugged and returned to the search, opening the closest door to reveal yet another dark room. They had found nothing more than blocked computers, chemistry labs and **__**incomprehensible **__**machines yet. This one was a bit more promising, there were many sheets of paper lying on a table in the centre of this room. The writing style was kinda familiar to Penny… She started her laptop and put on the Monocle.**_

"_**Analyze," she commanded, looking upon the writing. After a moment of processing, the Monocle displayed a result: Professor Jeremiah Brown's handwriting.**_

"_**Dad's work? What type of?" she thought aloud, reading the titles. "Plans of neutralizing world's nuclear weapon using satellites with micro-focusing mirrors!" she exclaimed in surprise. "By Jeremiah Brown, fourteenth of December 2003… Those things are over four years old."**_

_**She spent a while, reading the plans, but she failed to find anything interesting, so she put them back and got out of the room. "Come on, Bolt, let's check the next one."**_

_**Next door she saw was open, light from behind it poured into the corridor. She could hear some voices from the room, one of them instantly recognizable due to its heavy English accent.**_

"_**Have they found them yet?" the owner of the voice, Doctor Calico, asked.**_

"_**Wayne, Mel," someone else said aloud. "What is your status?"**_

"_**We've found the container," the reply came in a screechy voice, probably from a radio transmitter. "But… you should see this, they cut through it without problems. It was a darn foot thick layer of metal!"**_

"_**You morons, she is a famous inventor's daughter, she probably had a miniature oxyacetylene torch or another ingenious invention with her! She can be anywhere now…" judging by the voice, Calico was furious.**_

"_**Sir," yet another voice piped up. "She have probably overheard us, talking about your current base."**_

"_**You foo- My current base, you say? That's good," Calico suddenly calmed down. Before anyone could ask him about the reason of his sudden good mood, he continued. "Nonetheless, I want all the bases in a state of readiness, now!" he demanded. "We have to catch that nuisance before she does some real damage with her actions," with that, the TV turned off loudly.**_

_**That was all Penny needed to know.**_

"_**Bolt… do some real damage," she smirked. Then she quickly dressed into the diving suit and rushed to the exit. By the time she escaped the complex, first explosion in the labs occurred.**_

The scenes of mass destruction and demolition, namely of Bolt ruining the undersea labs, were said to be the best ones in the show yet. Indeed, it was a moment Bolt really proved his training to be worth all the effort it took.

* * *

Not long after she had finished reading the fourth episode, Penny heard the front door being opened.

"Hey, mom!" she called.

"Good morning, Penny. Have you eaten breakfast?" Beatrix asked, hugging her daughter as she came to the anteroom to greet her family.

"Sure," Penny answered, then turned to look for Bolt, already a bit concerned as to why hadn't she been licked to death yet. She immediately spotted him, lagging behind the whole group, looking as if he was deep in thought. All the time he was staring at Mittens, as she slowly entered the kitchen.

"Something's eating you, Bolty?" the girl asked in a solicitous voice, petting her favorite. Upon feeling her touch, the dog shifted his gaze upward and instantly began to make up for the time he devoted to look at Mittens.

After a while, Penny managed to escape Bolt's caress. She smiled, relieved that everything is good with her dog. While she was wiping the slobber of her face, she looked around the room, as she failed to see a certain hamster.

"And where's Rhi-" she didn't need to end the question as loud explosion sounded from the living room. She rolled her eyes at the rodent's habits, going back to the room. She took her books and went upstairs, where she could read in relative silence.

"Mind if I join you?" Bolt asked Rhino, watching Penny until she disappeared on the first floor.

"Are you kidding? Come on up!" the hamster exclaimed enthusiastically, motioning his hand invitingly. "You want to collect your thoughts, don't you?" he asked with a wink.

"Now you're the one who must be kidding," Bolt laughed with mock-surprise, lying down on the couch. "Next to you it's impossible," he teased, playfully pushing the hamster's ball with his paw.

"Oh really?" Rhino quickly stopped the movement of his living sphere. "It just so happens that I want to help you in this… perilous task," he offered, spreading his tiny arms as if he wanted to illustrate the extension of Bolt's mission's difficulty.

"And I just want to stop thinking," Bolt stated, looking in the direction of the TV. "Over past several days all I do is thinking, my head starts to ache from all that thinking," he confessed, still keeping his gaze away from his friend.

"Trust me on this one Bolt," Rhino said in a reassuring tone, waving his hand. "Almost every danger you faced in your life-"

"-was fake," Bolt cut in almost irritably, suddenly looking away from the TV. He rested his head on his paws and closed his eyes.

"Nonetheless," Rhino continued, undiscouraged by the dog's behavior, "most of them somehow resembled feline. Dr Calico had a cat-like eye," he started listing Bolt's enemies, counting them on his fingers. "His pets were cats, his minions' armors where bearing cat eye's symbol-"

"Get to the point, Rhino," Bolt interrupted once more.

Before answering, the rodent pressed his ball against his friend's muzzle until Bolt looked at him. "The point is," Rhino said, accusingly pointing a finger towards Bolt, "that you must face the new challenge, and beat it like you always do. Without that you won't be able to find your inner piece again."

"And the mentioned threat would be…?" Bolt asked, though he already knew the answer.

"Why, your feelings to Mittens, of course!"

"It's not that easy, Rhino…" Bolt lowered his head once more, but this time with shame, not irritation. "You can't simply kill one's emotions," he stated in a hurt tone.

"And who says you are to kill them?" Rhino's question caught Bolt off-guard, he immediately raised his head. Encouraged by that, Rhino continued. "You are to confess your affection to the cat!" Bolt's eyes widened at the mere proposition. "That's the only straight way to resolve your problem," Rhino ended.

"I… I really don't think it's such a good idea-" Bolt defended weakly, avoiding Rhino's gaze.

"Come on!" Rhino yelled in a fan-like voice. "You are Bolt, who-"

"-never faced that kind of a challenge," Bolt cut in bitterly.

"Are you afraid of our sleek, black cat?" Rhino teased, faking an offended tone.

"Not of her… of the confession, of the way she would react," Bolt admitted.

"Fine, do as you wish," Rhino snapped, seemingly giving up and rolling away. "But aren't you fed up with all this uncertainty?" he called over his arm. "I mean-"

"You know what, Rhino?" Bolt asked, suddenly standing up and jumping off the sofa. "I surrender. I'll tell her, ok? I could live with my thoughts…" he paused for a moment, before walking towards the kitchen. "…but evidently not with you, nagging me all day long," he finished quietly.

Rhino whooped loudly and turned to the TV, lying comfortably in his ball.

"Mission accomplished," he muttered to himself.

* * *

After Bolt had destroyed the labs placed beneath Calico's oilrig, the whole construction fell apart. That meant there was no one to pursue the brave duo, but they knew it wouldn't last long, as their enemy knew their current whereabouts. Besides, they plans remained unchanged, their aim still being to rescue Penny's father. That's why they flew to London, following the only clue Penny managed to get during their "visit" on the oilrig.

The only information they came across in England was the location of two another bases – in Paris and Cairo. They failed to localize the French establishment, but when they reached Egypt, they were greeted by a small army, consisting of over thirty soldiers. A few minutes after the opposed sides spotted each other…

_**Penny carefully stepped over a limp soldier's body. She slowly approached Bolt, surrounded by unconscious Calico's minions. She was taken aback by how meteorically Bolt's skills developed – mere days ago, three bullies had been a challenge for him, now he was capable of taking on forty soldiers, destroying oilrigs… and who knows what else.**_

_**From the new position, she spotted something she missed before – there was a copter, standing several meters away from the battleground. She immediately used the occasion to get a closer look on it – the knowledge of its armament could be very useful in the future. She took the Monocle out of her backpack to help her in gathering information.**_

"_**Calico's copters," she chuckled. "I guess we should shorten it to Calicopters."**_

_**Short look-over told her that the copter carried twenty modified AGM-114 Hellfire missiles and its secondary weapon was a M134 six-barrel 7.62mm machine gun, suspended beneath the cockpit. The latter name, suggested by the Monocle, was completely incomprehensible for the girl, so she commanded the appliance to count example damage the gun could cause. The results were deeply frightening. Those two types of weaponry alone made every Calicopter capable of destroying a small city. That was not the limit of their destructiveness though. Judging by the size, Penny guessed every Calicopter could hold either a massive amount of explosives, missiles and such or at least four motorcycles. She and Bolt had an idea of how deadly the latter vehicles were, since they had had to escape their chase in England. Had it not been for Bolt, the two would probably had got caught then.**_

_**Having examined the copter, Penny found the least hurt soldier and brought him round. With a little help of Bolt, she quickly persuaded him to tell her about the place where she should seek for her father. **_

"_**I know of two other bases," the soldier admitted. "I don't know if your father is in any of those, Calico doesn't let us know his current whereabouts-"**_

"_**And he sure has a reason," Penny laughed. "So, where are those places?" she asked calmly, as it was no longer necessary to threaten her enemy.**_

"_**One of them is located on an island, three miles south from Manna di Ragusa in Italy…" the soldier paused for a while.**_

"_**And the other?" Penny demanded.**_

"_**In Parthenon." **_

"_**Yeah, and I'm an alien," Penny laughed.**_

"_**Calico likes challenges," the soldier answered confidently. "But, now that you mention it… you really look kinda-" he was cut off as Penny hit the side of his neck with two fingers, knocking him cold.**_

"_**Greece and Italy, then," she muttered, standing up from the crouched position. "Let's start from Greece, it really sounds like Calico to-" she stopped, feeling something tugging at her leg. She looked down to see Bolt, whining pleadingly. "What is it, boy?" she asked with concern. In response, he nudged the unconscious soldier's head with his nose and looked up at her. After a few seconds, Penny understood what did he mean. "Oh, you're curious how did I beat him? It's a simple technique, there were those self-defense lessons at school…" she trailed off for a while. "Well, all you have to do is localize the nerve on your opponent's neck," she instructed, using the cold soldier as a model. "Then, you strike it with a finger or two. Simple, isn't it?" she smiled. Bolt responded with a smile.**_

The sixth episode continued the thread of cross-European search expedition. The duo reached Parthenon easily, but all they found there was another trap. This time, there were almost fifty men… it made no difference to Bolt. The victory was bitter though, as it meant they lost another day, following a wrong track. Nonetheless, Penny was far from giving up. On the very same day, she and Bolt took a plane to Italy.

_**They neared their target on a rented speedboat, but they had to leave it almost half a kilometer away from the island as a Calicopter was patrolling the sea. Knowing its capabilities, Penny dressed into her diving suit, packed the water-vulnerable equipment to the waterproof bag and allowed Bolt to drag her underwater all the way to the island. Thanks to his incredible strength, the journey was really quick. They emerged from the water near a small beach beneath a huge rocky cliff. Looking up, they saw Calico's facility – almost fifty meters above them. Taking the amount of weaponry that was probably gathered inside and the location of this place into consideration, it could easily be named a fortress. Impenetrable as it seemed, it had some weak points though, so Penny was sure they'll manage to get inside.**_

"_**Bolt, sneak in," Penny ordered. It was a new, useful command she taught him in England, before they tried to get inside the London base. It assured Penny Bolt will always be around when her stealth fails - which meant every time she tried it. She may have been a computer expert already, but her stealth techniques still required months of training. Nevertheless, she never gave up.**_

_**She found some pipes, going from the building into sea. It seemed like a perfect occasion to use the wheelbar. In past few days, this tool had proved itself to be really useful during infiltration of any facility. Adjustable to the exact width between walls, pipes and such, it had already allowed her to enter several seemingly impenetrable places. This time was no difference. Having ascended to the top of the rock, the girl quietly sneaked into the building. A cursory search showed nothing interesting, so she decided to get to the top of the building. By a stroke of luck, some rooms were covered with glass. The girl glanced into one of them, leaning on the glass surface. There were four Calico's minions discussing something aloud inside.**_

"_**Why keep the professor alive if he refuses to cooperate?" one of them asked.**_

"_**Because he's the only person who can finish the weapons installation," the other explained.**_

"_**Calico says the key is his daughter. If we catch her, the professor will do whatever we ask."**_

_**Penny adjusted her position to hear them better, but she made a crucial mistake: she forgot about the glass's fragility. In a flash, the large surface crackled, in the next Penny found herself on the floor of the room, surrounded by the soldiers and splinters of glass. One of the henchmen dragged her up and put her helmet off.**_

"_**It's the girl!" he exclaimed. She merely smirked, knowing that Bolt must had heard the commotion. Her self-confidence surprised the guards. It took them a while to piece the information they had about her.**_

"_**Where's the dog?" one of them asked. As if on cue, the room's door flew off its hinges and hit him. Behind the door, a certain white dog appeared.**_

"_**Bolt! Sic 'em!" Penny screamed, tearing herself loose from the minion's grip.**_

_**He growled menacingly, then jumped at the nearest soldier. He caught the man's arm in his teeth, using it as an axis to turn mid-air. When he was behind the minion's back, he pulled him strongly, thus sending him flying through the room, where he crashed into another man.**_

_**In the meantime, Penny retreated to an adjacent room. She observed the fight from behind a half-closed door. She couldn't doubt Bolt's victory, as he was already an expert in battling Calico's henchmen. His previous opponents often carried heavy, specialized guns, but here, due to limited space, all of the soldiers had chosen to use their secondary weapon. It was a very original armament - shock gloves with extreme maximum voltage of 100.000 volts, adjustable to let their users kill or simply paralyze their victims.**_

_**The room slowly turned into ruin as Bolt tossed the soldiers around. Spotting a new opportunity, he rammed with his forehead into yet another man, sending him flying through the room, where he crashed through a big window and fell out with a loud scream. The open window let Bolt hear another sound though, a very alarming one. There was a Calicopter, hovering right behind the wall. As soon as Bolt's enemies noticed that, all of them ran for their lives. The room became empty in a flash. Bolt knew what's going to happen just as well as they did, so he quickly jumped through the room, as far from the copter as possible. The wall behind him exploded in the very moment, filling the room with debris. Men in the copter turned a huge searchlight on and started their machine gun.**_

_**Penny watched it in horror. She knew Bolt was mostly invincible, he could survive heavy impacts and falling from great heights, once he had even been shot with a series from the Calico's minion's gun and came out of it without as much as a scratch. The Calicopter's gun's caliber was much bigger though, making the girl worried sick about her dog's life.**_

_**Bolt wanted to use his laser eyes and simply cut the copter in half, but he was afraid that being hit with a bullet from such weapon could be dangerous even for him – and the soldiers were shooting incessantly. Bolt was deflecting most of the bullets, running around the room and changing the directions fast, making it almost impossible to target him. Despite his efforts, after a while he got hit with several bullets. Force of the impact threw him through the room. Penny's heart skipped few beats. To her indescribable relief, Bolt quickly got up.**_

_**The copter's crew must have understood that they needed something more than that to kill the dog, because they fired another Hellfire into the room. For Penny, everything that happened next was a blur – after all, the rocket's speed exceeded 900 mph…**_

_**Bolt, on the other hand, was able to see the rocket nearing him in a slow motion, thanks to his modified senses. He jumped, catching the missile mid-air, landed on the ground, turned and allowed it to fly back. The rocket may had had a professional fire-and-forget guidance, but with its extreme speed it was unable to change its route on a 30-meters distance.**_

_**The Calicopter was defenseless against its own missiles. Its explosion must have broken every glass surface on the island.**_

_*******_

_**A single man peeked into the room the massacre took place in to check how did the struggle end. He looked around the room cautiously. He immediately spotted the girl everybody was after on his left.**_

"_**Where is my dad?" she asked threateningly, holding some kind of a metal bat and looking at him menacingly.**_

_**His only response was a smirk. He powered his electricity glove and reached his hand to paralyze her, when suddenly some item of great weight landed atop his head, immediately bringing him down. He looked up, surprised and partially frightened. There was a piano, hovering over his head… After a second the soldier understood the instrument wasn't hovering, it was being held by the girl's dog. The argument was clear… and very persuasive.**_

"_**In Yucatán jungle, that Calico's temple hideout," the henchman explained quickly to avoid being hit with the heavy object once more.**_

"_**Which jungle?" the girl inquired.**_

"_**I don't know," he lied, wanting to protect at least a part of the information from being given away. However, one short growl from the dog was enough to convince him. "Lamanai!" he added quickly, covering his head with his hands.**_

"_**Lamanai, northern Belize, of course!" his interrogator exclaimed, finally completing the name she heard on the oilrig in Antofagasta.**_

"_**You can't win, there's too many of us," the soldier threatened to try and save the tiniest bit of his honor.**_

"_**Are you gonna hurt him?" the girl asked, looking away from the soldier.**_

"_**Your dad? I don't know what Calico's gonna do to your fathe-"**_

"_**I was talking to my dog," the girl cut in.**_

_**Next thing the soldier remembered was something really heavy crashing on his head.

* * *

**_

Bolt neared the kitchen hesitantly. He still couldn't believe Rhino had managed to convince him, what he was planning to do seemed like a suicide mission to him… But he knew he had to do this. Not only because he was fed up with Rhino's nagging, but also because deep inside Bolt felt it was the right thing to do.

But it didn't make it any easier.

With last heavy sigh, the dog stepped into the kitchen. It was quite spacious, furnished with a modern steel worktop along the left wall and a massive oak table with several chairs. Whole room was filled with light, falling through a huge window, embedded in the right wall. Bolt had already known all that, but he took his time watching every smallest detail nonetheless. Every second allowed him to think of another way to solve the problem at hand… Alas, all his thoughts ceased as his eyes followed the sun's rays, fixing themselves on a small, mostly black figure. Bolt took three shaky steps forward, suddenly unable to think about anything else then how beautiful did Mittens' fur looked, glistening in the sun. He instantly understood that he won't be able to say anything more complicated than the three easiest words… and that uttering even this short sentence may be too much for him to bear.

After several seconds he understood that he's standing motionlessly, staring at Mittens, thinking of nothing but of a way to run away and avoid whatever trouble he'd put himself into by admitting his feelings. He could also feel the feline's curiosity, emanating from her entire form. She kept her low position, drinking water, but it was clearly visible that waiting for what her friend had to say was almost a torture for her.

"Mittens…" Bolt finally decided to make use of his throat. His voice came out harsh, barely audible, as a huge lump formed in his throat, blocking both his breath and speech. The dog fought it, knowing that putting it off any longer was not going to facilitate his confession. "I… I think I love you," he uttered shakily, looking at his feet in anticipation of the cat's reaction.

As soon as he ended his confession, Mittens burst into an uncontrollable fit of laughter, spitting the water upon the dog in the process.

"I'm sorry," she managed to utter between laughs, "but that's by far the best joke you've ever…" she suddenly noticed Bolt's fallen expression and immediately calmed down. It took her a moment to connect her friend's mood with his words. Her eyes widened at the realization that what he said might not had been a joke. "Bolt, tell me you were not serious," she almost pleaded.

"I was," he answered apologetically, still keeping his gaze low.

"Bolt, it's… I mean…" Mittens stammered, desperately trying to think of anything in the situation she had never even supposed she could get into. "You're a dog, for Pete's sake!" she finally exclaimed, using the most obvious argument that came to her mind.

"I am," he responded silently, meekly accepting the well-deserved scolding he was receiving.

"And I'm a cat!" Mittens screamed once more, paying no attention to Bolt's behavior.

"You are," came her silent answer.

"Would you stop it? I'm serious!" she yelled once more, making Bolt wince and regret complying to Rhino's advise even more.

"Sorry," by then, Bolt was almost whispering, earnestly considering running away.

His barely audible tone finally caught Mittens' attention. She sighed, seeing Bolt's sincere fallen expression. Before speaking up again, she took a deep breath to calm herself.

"Bolt…" she paused for a moment, but he didn't respond. "Look at me," she asked coolly. The dog hesitantly obliged, though it was evident he feared what would come next. "I'm sorry if I overreacted a bit… but who wouldn't? Look at us, Bolt. We represent different species, we barely have anything in common! How in the world do you imagine…?" she paused, as a new thought occurred to her. "Do you even imagine it?" she muttered under her breath. "I'm the first female you've ever met, ain't I, Bolt?"

During her speech the white canine regained much of his composure thanks to the scolding's end, so now he was able to respond casually.

"Why, save for Penny… you are," he admitted.

"That would mean I've got a difficult lesson to teach," she muttered, sighing heavily.

* * *

_**Once again, Penny and Bolt were obliged to get to the other side of the world. They were starting to get used to it, even the jetlag stopped being a serious problem. Having reached Orange Walk in Belize at night, the duo decided to get a good night's sleep before resuming their search. On the next day, after eating breakfast, they headed to a travel agency. They were informed that Lamanai temple complex was currently unavailable to the tourists due to its renovation. That information pleased Penny – it was obvious that Calico wouldn't be able to hide in a place swarming with visitors. Thanks to the previously gained experience, Penny rented a boat almost effortlessly. With that, they easily got to the Lamanai haven. It was thoroughly empty.**_

"_**Ha," Penny said, mooring the boat. "I bet they're waiting for anyone to show up several meters from the harbor. No way we're gonna let them outwit us, huh Bolt?" she laughed. Then, the duo took off, ignoring the path prepared for tourists. Instead, they decided to take a difficult way through the jungle. It turned out to be a good decision – from their position they were able to observe the soldiers guarding the road without being seen by them. Bolt whined impatiently, failing to understand why they weren't attacking their enemies. Penny smiled, recognizing Bolt's desires.**_

"_**We don't know if Calico or my father's there," she explained. "That soldier could have lied. That's why I need to sneak in and search for some intel before they find out about our presence."**_

_**They continued to force their way through the bush for several minutes until they could see several enormous stone buildings through the trees. Penny gasped, seeing that the area was literally flooded with soldiers.**_

"_**What are they all defending?" the girl thought aloud. Soon, she calmed down and added, "I'm gonna figure it out. Bolt, go play!"**_

_**He obeyed and began to encircle the temple complex alone. He was to draw the attention of the minions and let Penny do her job.**_

"_**Wherever valuable information are, there's also a computer to store them. Where are you keeping yours, Calico?" she thought aloud, waiting for Bolt to start his diversion and observing the temples through her binoculars. "Aha! The peak of the High Temple. Good choice… Flat, quite big and pretty impenetrable. Unless your enemy has a wheelbar and a superdog, that is!"**_

_*******_

_**Meanwhile, Bolt reached the other side of the temple complex and emerged from the jungle. Having spotted some guards, he allowed them to see him too, casually walking around for a while. After a few calm moments he understood they're not gonna recognize him without some obvious proof, so he knocked one of them out. That, of course, made the others reach for their radios and call for help at once. Soon, the whole place filled with Calico's henchmen – their number quickly exceeded sixty men. Bolt did his best to fight them, but the dense crowd of enemies made him unable to move quick enough and he got caught by one of the guards. An electrical impulse penetrated his body, making him no harm though. He prepared to throw the man off him when he felt numerous other hands gripping on him, sending more powerful electricity waves down his spine. He was paralyzed, suddenly finding it difficult to inhale. It seemed that was the end. In a last desperate attempt to break free, Bolt took a deep breath and barked as loud as he could. It didn't make things better, on the contrary – his vision blurred and faded to pitch black, he stopped filling the multiple hands' grasp, hardly feeling anything. The dog understood it really was the end. He failed Penny…**_

_**No! Bolt knew that as long as there was a tiniest drop of blood in his veins, he wouldn't let his person down. With that thought, he forced his limbs to lift his body from the earth. Having shakily stood up, he shook all the dirt from himself and looked around. He was standing in the center of a small crater, surrounded by unconscious soldiers. His last-ditch attack must had been more effective than he thought. It was still incomprehensible for Bolt though, he merely barked…**_

_**He needed to check his suspicions, so he chose a nearby stone wall. He took a firm position, inhaled deeply and barked with all his strength. The result was simply outstanding, the sound wave he produced literally obliterated the structure. He smiled to himself with a smile that said, "Let those wretched spawns of evil try and beat me now!"**_

_**To his contentment, there were already several soldiers running towards him, probably lured by the sound of his superbarks.**_

_*******_

_**Bolt managed to draw most of the guards away and the few that kept their position were also focused on the battleground. Therefore, Penny easily reached the High Temple. Hearing two powerful barks from the other side of the valley made her smile. Bolt was either exclaiming his joy upon his victory or had just discovered some new power he possessed…**_

_**The girl started to ascend the Mayan temple quickly, using the wheelbar to quicken her pace whenever she had the opportunity. She was near the top of the building when she heard a dreadful sound of a Calicopter's whirling blades behind her. She turned around to see the deadly machine fly towards Bolt's location. She desperately tried not to think about what could happen in a one-to-one struggle between Bolt and the Calicopter. Instead, she allowed her fear to help her climb the temple even faster.**_

_**The sound of a long machine gun series reached her ears in the moment she reached the very top of the temple. She ignored all the tents, standing around her. Nothing mattered when Bolt's life was in danger… She rushed to the other side of the temple to see a result of the fight. She came right in time to see Bolt bark at the Calicopter, hovering in the air several meters from him. In the very same moment, the copter's crew shot two missiles at Bolt, but as soon as they flew out, a sound wave started by the dog's superbark sent them back. Penny cheered silently as the machine exploded, but her smile faded when it collapsed to the ground… crashing precisely in the spot where Bolt stood. The ground gave in to the force of the impact and a burning wreckage of what once was a Calicopter fell underground, disappearing in one of many caverns placed beneath the valley.**_

"_**Bolt?! BOOOLT!" Penny screamed at the top of her lungs, suddenly not caring about her stealth. Hearing a laughter behind her back, she turned to face her enemies. Her eyes widened as she gasped at the recognition of her greatest opponent.**_

"_**And I told everyone you're too smart to walk right into a trap... Seems I overestimated you," Calico said, smiling evilly.**_

_**Penny didn't need much time to turn her fear into anger.**_

"_**Where's my dad?" she demanded. In response, the evil doctor handed her a mobile. She hesitantly took it from his hand.**_

"_**Daddy!" she screamed, having heard a familiar voice on the other side.**_

"_**Penny!" her answer came.**_

"_**Daddy, are you hurt?" the girl asked with concern.**_

"_**I'm okay, where's Bolt?" her father inquired.**_

"_**I don't know, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry..." she apologized.**_

"_**Just do whatever Calico says until all-" she had no chance to hear the rest of Jeremiah's instructions, as Calico suddenly snatched the mobile from her hand.**_

"_**If you ever want to see your daughter again, finish the weapon," he ordered the professor.**_

"_**Please! She's just a little girl!" the scientist's pleading voice sounded in the air, but Calico quickly snapped it close.**_

"_**Find a penny, pick it up, and all day long you'll have good luck!" he grinned, ordering two soldiers to hold Penny and motioning to the giant steps down.**_

_*******_

_**After the copter's wreck had hit him, Bolt felt the ground under his legs giving in to the new weight. A long fall followed, ending with a painful impact with a rocky floor. Every piece of Bolt's body was hurting, though luckily none of his bones seemed to be broken. He slowly crept out from beneath the copter's wreck, looking around the place he found himself in. The cave wasn't too spacious, but quite high. There was no way Bolt was going to make it back through the hole in the ceiling. The whole place was illuminated by torches attached to the walls. Now they were useless, as the sunlight found its way inside through the huge hole above. The room was also decorated with several Mayan statues, but they didn't interest Bolt. All he cared about now was finding his way up, back to Penny. As if on cue, he spotted an open door to his right. There were several armed minions, cautiously nearing the burning remains of a Calicopter. Bolt smirked. Anyone standing on his way to Penny was either going to step away or be thrown away.**_

_**Soon, the cave filled with screams.**_

_*******_

_**Calico didn't drag his prisoner far. They climbed down the High Temple and entered a room one level above the ground. Once, it had had to be a sacrificial chamber – there were many massive columns, probably supporting whole temple's weight, an ancient altar, covered with religious carvings… and two comfortable armchairs. Calico sat in one of them and motioned to the other. The soldiers holding Penny made her sit in it, then saluted to Calico.**_

"_**Thank you," he said. "Proceed with my previous orders concerning your men, move them to next designated location. And prepare a helicopter. I must take care of a certain scientist personally," he grinned, looking at Penny. "Now, that I have a perfect weapon to fight his resistance, it shouldn't be a problem at all! You are dismissed," he finished, looking back at the soldiers. The two saluted once more and retreated from the hall to take care of his orders.**_

"_**You caused me a lot of trouble, Penny," Calico continued, adjusting his position in the armchair. "The failure of my Olympics plan cost me a lot of money… Hopefully though you'll prove yourself useful. Your father's cooperation is really essential for my plans…"**_

_**Penny didn't answer, keeping her rebellious attitude to cover her real emotions. With her father captured and Bolt probably killed, she had no chance to escape Calico… and even if she did, she would have no way to fight him afterwards.**_

_*******_

_**Having left the sacrificial chamber, both soldiers descended to the ground level. Then, one of them left towards the heliport. The other turned back to the High Temple, entering a room on the ground level, almost directly below the chamber Calico was sitting in. The room was empty, save for a trapdoor in the centre. The soldier opened it and used a ladder to climb down to an underground hall.**_

"_**Good news, boys!" he called. "We're good to go, Calico's cap-" he stopped, gaping at the sight of the room. Several men were lying in random places, evidently unconscious. A few statues, gathered in the room, were broken, the floor was covered with debris. Before he could think of anything more though, something leapt onto his back and struck him in the neck, knocking him cold.**_

_*******_

_**Penny and Calico were sitting on the armchairs, each thinking hard. The only difference was that Penny's thoughts were concentrated around her failure, while Calico's ones concerned his plans of conquering the world. After a minute, the chamber, hitherto thoroughly quiet, filled with noise as a Calicopter landed in front of the High Temple.**_

_**Calico stood up and looked at Penny triumphantly. He was about to say something when he heard an alarming sound from behind him. Turning around, he watched in horror as two green laser beams cut through the hall's floor, damaging the supporting pillars. That could mean only one thing – the ancient building was going to collapse any moment now. He nervously grabbed Penny by her wrist and started dragging her towards the exit. In the same moment, the lasers disappeared as a huge part of the floor fell down. A moment later, a small white figure jumped into the room through the newly made hole. Calico failed to notice it, but Penny immediately recognized her loyal companion. She resisted the criminal, using the opportunity to steal a mobile from his pocket. Calico must have understood he had no chance to make it out with the girl, because he suddenly released her hand and ran for his live.**_

_**As soon as he was out, the entire structure crumpled, burying Bolt and Penny under tons of rubble. Calico stopped several meters from the ruined building, dusted himself off, regaining his composure and came over to the soldiers, gathered around a helicopter.**_

"_**She's-" one of them started, looking at the ruin which was a High Temple mere minutes ago.**_

"_**-no longer a menace," Calico cut in. "As long as the professor believes she's alive he'll do what he's asked and finish the weapon. Too bad we can't all have nine lives," the criminal laughed, boarding the copter.**_

_**A long moment passed since the noise made by the Calicopter's whirling blades faded in the distance. The scene was almost perfectly motionless. Suddenly, several small pieces of debris rolled down. After another moment a giant boulder rolled aside, showing Bolt and Penny, sitting completely intact among the debris.**_

"_**Good boy!" the girl exclaimed, petting her dear companion. "They think we're goners, that should keep us off their radar for a while," she reasoned, then started searching for any information on the stolen mobile. "Here's something," she said. "Stropole Railway... northern Russia," she concluded. "Bolt, do you like trains?" she asked, smiling enthusiastically. Bolt smiled in response. "How about trains in really cold places?" she added, making the smile disappear from his muzzle.**_


End file.
